Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 216 - Let There Be Glory (1)

Chapter 216 – Let There Be Glory (1)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“But was Longyuan originally property of the Heavenly King Sect?” “…No. I didn’t even know it was Longyuan.”

“Ohhh. I see. Then it wasn’t yours to begin with, Sect Leader. Did the Imperial Court put it in your hands?”

As I said that, I looked over the beautiful blade. Only after handing it over to me had Zhu Mun-hwan learned that the sword in his possession was Longyuan.

Was that why? He seemed a little regretful somehow.

“Anyway, it’s nice. The feel of the sword is different.”

I gave the sword a few swishes.

The sword Wudang gave out certainly wasn’t bad, but a sword worthy of being called one of the Eighteen Famous Swords of the martial world really was different. Even when I infused it with internal energy, there was not the slightest sense of vibration, only ease.

That likely meant the balance of the sword was excellent and that it had been forged from superb iron. “It is a sword worth paying any price for, if it is for the revival of Great Ming.

It was never mine to begin with.”

Zhu Mun-hwan smacked his lips as he stared fixedly at ‘my’ Longyuan. Whatever his words said, his eyes were honest.

“Anyway, now that you’ve gotten a good sword, you should learn a sword art with it.” “No.

I’m not going to use this sword.” I slowly sheathed it.

In truth, Longyuan was a pie in the sky for me as well.

“You took the sword, and now you’re saying you won’t use it? What are you talking about?”

Zhu Mun-hwan asked in a tone that said he could not understand. That was only natural.

This was something he likely would never understand even if he lived his whole life.

“Could you turn around for a moment?” “Hm?”

“Just for a moment.” At my sudden request, Zhu Mun-hwan tilted his head, but he still turned around.

Right then, I opened the Martial Talent Shop. [ Awakening – Grade 3 ]

[ Price: Longyuan, one of the Eighteen Famous Swords ]

Longyuan was certainly a fine sword, but talent mattered more to me than that. Grade 4 talent had already been excellent, so what would Grade 3 talent be like?

I could not keep Zhu Mun-hwan turned around forever, so I bought Awakening at once. When I had bought things with money, the money in my pouch had vanished, but since this was an item, I held onto the hope that unlike money, it might not disappear.

But the Martial Talent Shop was merciless.

Longyuan left my hand, trembled violently, and rose into the air on its own. And then Longyuan vanished.

Seeing a treasure on the level of Longyuan disappear before my eyes left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. It was a question that had only come to me too late, now that it was all over, but where did the money and Longyuan go after being traded with the Martial Talent Shop?

Did they disappear entirely from the world? But the Martial Talent Shop itself was a bizarre marvel outside all common sense, so not only was guessing impossible, it was meaningless.

‘…Hm?’

At that moment, my vision suddenly lurched. I thought the stone cavern itself was shaking.

But that was not it. What was reeling was me.

All the internal energy in my dantian suddenly stirred at once.

The demonic energy in my upper dantian, and the spiritual energy and demonic energy I had split apart in my lower dantian through the Dual Intent Heart Art. Sensing that something was wrong, I immediately folded into a lotus position.

I closed my eyes and observed my interior. What I found inside was even more spectacular.

More than twice the amount of internal energy that usually flowed through my qi channels was now surging in torrents. Naturally, it seemed to be the effect of Awakening as a Grade 3 talent.

I could not ask Zhu Mun-hwan for help.

If I opened my mouth, the rampaging internal energy and the energy outside might collide and throw me into qi deviation. I tried to gather the internal energy under control at once, but it was not easy, because I had never before moved internal energy that wrapped around my body so fast and so violently.

“…What is happening behind me?” Zhu Mun-hwan said that, as though he had sensed the storm of internal energy raging from my body.

Even so, it did not seem that he had turned around yet.

The Primordial Mixed Qi I had drawn up from my lower dantian through the Governor Vessel struck at the baihui acupoint. The baihui acupoint was where my upper dantian lay.

Only then did I suddenly realize something. Up until now, I had hardly used the demonic energy in my upper dantian at all.

At best, I had merely separated demonic energy and spiritual energy out from the lower dantian divided by the Dual Intent Heart Art and drawn from there. The reason was simple.

My upper dantian was in the baihui acupoint at the crown of my head, while my lower dantian was at the qihai acupoint in my lower abdomen, the center of the body.

To send internal energy down to the Yongquan Acupoint, which lies at the very bottom of the Kidney Channel of Foot Lesser Yin, the lower dantian was far more advantageous than the upper dantian. When it came to spreading qi through the whole body, in other words warming the body up, the lower dantian was much faster.

Also, the qihai acupoint was large, while the baihui acupoint was no bigger than a grain of millet. Naturally, the amount they could hold was different as well.

Thinking back, even when I had fused demonic energy and spiritual energy with All Streams Return to the Source, the demonic energy in the upper dantian had remained intact.

Only the internal energy in my lower dantian had merged. So in conclusion, I had only possessed the demonic energy in the upper dantian.

I had never properly used it. Only now did I realize that.

But realization was one thing, and pain was another. Every time the Primordial Mixed Qi drawn up through the Governor Vessel struck the baihui acupoint, I had to endure pain as if knives were carving through my brain.

‘If I even scream, it’s over.’

I was a martial artist now as well. I knew how internal energy had to be handled.

If I accepted outside energy while everything inside me was running wild like this, it would turn into qi deviation at once. I blocked off all sensation coming in from outside, including my breathing.

Bang!

Bang! The rampaging internal energy kept pounding at the still-blocked baihui acupoint.

The Conception Vessel and Governor Vessel are originally open at birth, but with time they become blocked by impurities. That obstructing barrier is called the Mysterious Gate of Life and Death.

And when that Mysterious Gate of Life and Death is broken through, what martial people commonly call the opening of the Ren and Du channels occurs. What I was being forced through right now was the opening of the Ren and Du channels, a rare fortunate encounter that might only happen once in a martial artist’s life, if at all.

I heard a cracking sound.

It was like the sound of a fruit such as a watermelon splitting open. Bang, crack, bang, crack, bang, crack.

It felt as though my brain were burning white. In the midst of that dreadful pain, regret came flooding in.

Why had I tried to save people who had nothing to do with me?

Even if the odds had been slim, if I had only tried to survive, might I not have lived somehow? If I had simply not stepped forward and had gone on clinging to Wudang as a merchant, I would never have had to feel this pain.

If I had simply remained in Wudang with my dantian crippled and lived as a merchant, at least I would not have died this quickly. I was a merchant.

For a merchant to ‘sacrifice’ himself for others was impossible. A merchant is a creature that calculates.

Even if I took a loss right now, I might yield if it meant future gain.

But sacrifice is a matter on a different plane. If I, the one doing the calculating, disappear, then what am I calculating for, and for what had I lived with such fierce calculations all that time?

So the sacrifice I was making now was an act that flatly denied the first life I had once been so proud of. ‘…!’

At that moment, memories rose up inside my burning mind like a towering tidal wave.

Those memories were moments stitched together from the instants in which I had felt happiness. When Myeong-gyeong had hugged me and I felt warmth, when I gave sweet cakes to Master, when I changed Wudang with my own hands.

As those fleeting moments linked together, the pleasures of those instants burst forth without pause. I had heard it before.

The pleasure one feels just before death is stronger than anything else. Pain and pleasure try to balance one another, so just as pain follows immense pleasure, immense pleasure also comes after immense pain.

A tidal wave densely woven from happy moments began to extinguish the flames in my mind.

In the end, it was they who saved me from this pain. I had not saved them.

They had saved me. Even if I had survived, I would have tasted these memories at the edge of death.

Then how much would I have regretted failing to sacrifice myself for them?

Guilt settled over my cooling mind. I had been arrogant.

I thought the calculations a merchant made were the whole of life. But that is only possible when I stand at the center of the universe.

Even if my life ends, the world goes on as though nothing happened. If there is an endgame in baduk, then there is death in life, and if there is one who calculates, then after death there are those who remember me.

Of course, if still more time passes, even those who remember me will eventually be broken down into dust in the universe and disappear.

Just as baduk stones that have fought their fierce battle are placed back into the box and the board is cleared for the future. Then because all these things vanish, are they meaningless?

No. I had just seen the meaning of life.

The moments of troublesome affliction, and the moments of blazing delight.

Each of those moments had meaning. That was life, and carrying it onward was what made a person.

Until now, I had thought I was only a merchant. Until now, I had thought I was only a martial artist.

Just as there are merchants who never ripen into true merchants and remain mere traders, there are martial artists who die as nothing more than sword hands. In my first life, I had been a mere trader, and in my second life, I had been a mere sword hand.

I had reflected on trade, and I had reflected on martial arts, but I had misunderstood the human.

And only now, by understanding the human, I awakened as both a merchant and a martial artist. The moment that thought came to me.

Bang! The upper dantian, which had been stagnant, began to flow together with the lower dantian.

The Ren and Du channels had opened.

I snapped my eyes open. The interior of the burial mound was filled with mist, as if I had just unleashed the Flowing Cloud Sword Art.

I rolled my eyes around to see where the source of the mist was, and found that smoke was rising from my crown. The mist filling the burial mound had poured out from the top of my head.

I quickly turned my internal energy through my body. The baihui acupoint, once no bigger than a grain of millet, had widened until it was as large as the qihai acupoint, and it was filled with Primordial Mixed Qi that had grown denser still.

Without realizing it, I raised a hand and touched the crown of my head.

Fortunately, the hair on my crown had not fallen out. “Congratulations on your fortunate encounter.”

Perhaps he sensed my breathing, because Zhu Mun-hwan spoke. He still had his back turned, but he seemed to know what had happened to me.

“Thank you.” “The opening of the Ren and Du channels.

That is not an easy pain to endure.

I almost died when I went through it myself.” “You knew right away without even looking.”

“It would be stranger not to, when I heard all those bangs.” Ah, so the sound carried outside.

That made me understand just how terrible the pain had been.

If the sound echoing inside my head had leaked outside, then just how violent must it have been? “May I turn around now?”

“Yes.” At my answer, Zhu Mun-hwan turned around.

The moment he saw me, he flinched in surprise. “What is it?”

“…The look in your eyes has changed.”

“My eyes?” “Yes.

Before, they were like a dull blade, but now they are like a sharpened edge.” “Is that so.”

He was a master on the level of the Heavenly King Sect Leader, so it was surely not an empty remark.

It seemed Awakening really did show on the outside as well. Zhu Mun-hwan kept looking at me, then noticed something strange.

“Where did Longyuan go?” “I ate it.”

“What?” “Don’t try to figure out where it went.

Isn’t it my sword anyway?”

“…That is true, but.” Zhu Mun-hwan kept darting his eyes around as though he had just witnessed some incomprehensible marvel.

But Longyuan had already vanished, and it was not coming back. “Well, now, this is astonishing.

First it seemed you opened the Ren and Du channels, and then Longyuan suddenly vanished.”

“Life is easier when there are more things you don’t know than things you do.” Since I showed absolutely no sign that I meant to tell him, Zhu Mun-hwan gave up without much trouble.

In any case, what mattered more to him now was the same as what mattered more to me. That was to quickly master the Heavenly Demon Heart Art to the sixth level and leave for the Central Plains.

He had said this place was nearly ten thousand li beneath the sea, so we had no idea how we would get out. Still, since the emperor had spoken of the diagram on the stone wall, that was the only clue we had.

“For now, let us learn the Heavenly Demon Heart Art.”

“Sounds good.” Zhu Mun-hwan did not ask any more questions about how I had opened the Ren and Du channels or where Longyuan had gone.

What mattered more was helping me learn the Heavenly Demon Heart Art. He had indeed been the Sect Leader of the Heavenly King Sect, a sect of mystery.

Even without the monstrous strength that had once been accompanied by madness, he was still an outstanding master.

His interpretation of the verses of the Heavenly Demon Heart Art, the method of moving internal energy, and so on. Come to think of it, this was the first time I had ever actually studied martial arts like this.

The martial arts I had learned until now had all been things I more or less skimmed once and then tried out by relying on talent. So in a way, this was the first time I was truly learning martial studies.

Along with the opening of the Ren and Du channels, the insight that had awakened in me soaked it all in like parched earth drinking sweet rain. “I do not like to flatter, but you really are an extraordinary genius.

You must have made a name for yourself in the martial world.”

Even Zhu Mun-hwan, who as the Heavenly King Sect Leader must have seen many masters, acknowledged it, so there could be no doubting my insight now. “I suppose I did, in my own way.”

“How strange. You seem humble, yet somehow you are still annoying.”

“That feels unfair.

I only told the truth.” There had been no younger martial artist besides me whom the Beggars’ Gang treated as top-grade intelligence, so that was all I had meant.

Yet somehow I had turned into a braggart. Anyway, that was how we learned the Heavenly Demon Heart Art together.

Zhu Mun-hwan truly threw himself into teaching me. I did not know how much time had passed.

Judging roughly from the way both my hair and Zhu Mun-hwan’s hair and beard had grown, it seemed that several months had gone by.

The hair that once had not even reached my shoulders when tied now covered my back. During that time, I truly did nothing but study the Heavenly Demon Heart Art.

This undersea burial mound was a place where concentrated yin qi slept, and since no one breathed here, energy overflowed in abundance. It was the ideal place for qi accumulation.

“Your internal energy is increasing at a truly absurd rate.

Opening the Ren and Du channels does make qi accumulation faster, but….” “Since things have turned out like this anyway, why don’t you accumulate qi together with me when I do it, Sect Leader?”

The principle of inhalation and exhalation was simple. You just had to exhale a little less than you inhaled.

That difference was what accumulated energy. So the more you inhaled and the less you exhaled, the better the breathing method.

That was why people sat in lotus position and practiced dantian breathing.

“No. Whenever I teach you, I feel as though all my qi has been sucked away, and it leaves me tired.”

Zhu Mun-hwan refused, perhaps because he was not particularly dissatisfied with his own internal energy. That was no concern of mine.

The desire to improve in martial arts differed from person to person.

Instead, Zhu Mun-hwan tried to use the time when he might have been accumulating qi to speak with me. Without a doubt, that was a great help to my mental stability.

If I had been trapped alone inside this burial mound, training the Heavenly Demon Divine Art with no promise of when it would end, my heart might have broken midway through. But by talking with Zhu Mun-hwan in between learning the Heavenly Demon Heart Art, I could clear my head, and it felt as though my mental hygiene stayed clean.

“I have a son as well. I do not know whether he is still alive.”

“What is his name?”

“Mun-won. One character is the same as mine.”

“Then he would be Zhu Mun-won.” “That is right.”

Whenever Zhu Mun-hwan looked up at the dark ceiling of the burial mound, he would sometimes wear a distant expression, and it seemed likely he was thinking of the son from whom he had been torn when the Heavenly King Sect was destroyed.

“By your reckoning, ten years have passed, so Mun-won must think I died beyond all doubt.” “I suppose so.”

“That is better, perhaps. If he had met me as that thing called the Great Toad of the Eastern Sea, how painful would that have been for him?”

“He still might have wanted to see you, even like that. Isn’t that what family is?”

“No.

If I could not have recognized him, what meaning would there have been? And if I had harmed Mun-won while I was the Great Toad of the Eastern Sea, I would have wandered the nine heavens in guilt even after death.”

“That is true as well.” That was how we talked of trivial things.

I could hardly only listen, so I told him about my own past as well.

“You have lived a life full of twists and turns too.” “I am sure I am not the only one.”

As we kept talking like that, Zhu Mun-hwan and I became fairly close. He sometimes called me Hui-yeong, and I in turn sometimes called him uncle rather than Sect Leader.

Whether Great Ming would be revived or not was another matter. I had simply become personally close with Zhu Mun-hwan.

Then, on a day no different from the others, I talked idly with Zhu Mun-hwan and accumulated qi.

After observing me as I circulated the Heavenly Demon Heart Art, Zhu Mun-hwan said calmly, “You have reached the sixth level.”

Those were the very words I had been waiting desperately to hear. I did not know how much time had passed.

We were trapped here, and under the ever-glowing night-luminescent pearl there was no longer any concept of day and night.

“Once we get outside, forget the revival of Great Ming and all the rest, let’s at least share a drink.” “That does not sound bad.”

Zhu Mun-hwan laughed heartily. That was how I placed my hand on the diagram in the stone wall.

My internal energy flowed into it. Once I had filled the entire pattern with internal energy, it did not fade even when I stopped pouring more in.

Instead, it began to shine and rumble.

“Ohhh….” A huge door opened.

It was a majestic sight. And what lay behind that opened door was yet another stone wall.

“…?”

“Huh?” Zhu Mun-hwan and I were both thrown into confusion.

That stone wall bore a pattern different from the one before. This time even I could tell at a glance.

Those were forms from some kind of sword art. “…It is the Heavenly Demon Sword Art.”

Zhu Mun-hwan said it in a heavy voice.

There had not been only one stone wall. That meant I had to stay here longer and learn still more martial arts.