Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 218 - Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (1)

Chapter 218 – Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (1)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The officiant of this Bright Truth Rite was Cheong-hwa. On the memorial papers were written the names of the sacrificed masters and Muk Hui-yeong’s name.

The Bright Truth Rite, whose purpose was averting disaster and praying for blessings, proceeded in heavy silence.

After burning the joss paper with Samadhi True Fire, Cheong-hwa sent the ashes scattering into the sky. Clouds hung low over Mount Wudang, as if to comfort the sorrow draped over it.

“….”

Everyone stood with both hands clasped before them. From the elders of the Cheong generation to the youngest of the Myeong generation, every one of them had come out.

Even the ritual table, which during the first memorial rite had at least carried proper offerings such as meat and rice cakes, had become shabby this year.

The reason was simple. It was because the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company, which shared its economic fate with the Wudang Sect, had begun to totter.

The Imperial Palace officially named that incident the Guiyou Shipwreck.

That was to say, a shipwreck incident that had taken place in the guiyou month. The masters who had participated had not all died, and in particular masters who knew the truth, like Cheong-hwa and Namgung Ik, protested that it was absurd.

But the Imperial Palace refused to acknowledge the monster called the Great Toad of the Eastern Sea despite the outcry of the masters and insisted on the story that they had died when the ship went down.

To the Imperial Palace, it did not matter that more than half the victims had been peak masters capable of crossing water by stepping on it. “Let us stop here. It seems rain will fall soon.”

Cheong-ui said.

Cheong-hwa nodded weakly. One by one, they stepped forward according to generation order and bowed.

Many names were written on the memorial papers, but there was only one person they were truly thinking of.

By the time the rite was ending, the sound of sniffling could be heard. It came from where the youngest of the Myeong generation were gathered.

There, Myeong-gyeong was sniffling with reddened eyes. Everyone knew that Muk Hui-yeong and Myeong-gyeong had been close, so they pretended not to notice.

At that moment, a bell linked by silk thread rang.

It meant a visitor had arrived. The people of the Cheong generation hurriedly cleared away the ritual table.

Just after the table was put away, a short man with a protruding belly came panting up Mount Wudang.

He looked ridiculous, but no one laughed at him. That was because he was the Prefect who oversaw both Junxian and Xiangyang.

“What brings the Prefect here?”

Cheong-ui, as Sect Leader, stepped in front of him and blocked his path. In effect, it was a warning that he should go no farther.

The Prefect drew a deep breath, then looked around.

“Surely you know why I came.” The Prefect’s greasy chin wobbled with his smile.

Cheong-ui frowned.

“I know nothing of it.” “I smell something burning. I wonder if someone has been burning joss paper.”

“It seems the Prefect’s position is not nearly as busy as I thought. If you have enough time to come all the way here and monitor a sect that has done nothing but keep to the countryside since that day.”

“Heh heh. Then you should have broken the law in moderation.” The eyes of the Prefect and Cheong-ui met in open hostility.

“And instead of calling it that day, you ought to call it the Guiyou Shipwreck. I understand that your heart aches, Sect Leader, but what can anyone do against an imperial command?”

“…I will say it that way next time.” “I believe I heard that last time as well.”

The Prefect laughed as he picked at his ear. At that insolent sight, the disciples clenched their fists and trembled, but with even their martial uncles remaining still, they could not step forward.

“Let me say this once more. By imperial command, you are forbidden to hold memorial rites for the people involved in the Guiyou Shipwreck. It was only an incident, so do not burden it with meaning for no reason.”

“I know.” Cheong-ui answered stiffly.

The Prefect slowly looked around, then turned away.

“Be careful. Careful. Keep this up and you’ll be branded traitors.” With those words, far more mocking than concerned, the Prefect descended Mount Wudang.

“Haa.”

Cheong-ui watched the Prefect’s retreating back and sighed. After the incident in the guiyou month, great upheaval came to the martial world as well.

The sects and families that had suffered casualties, including Wudang, immediately took up arms and went to the Martial Alliance, but imperial troops were waiting there.

Martial Alliance Leader Su Je-heon denied that his side had ever attacked other sects or families, and the Zhuge Clan and Mount Hua Sect did the same. Naturally, the Imperial Palace sided with the Martial Alliance.

In the course of events, everyone realized that the Imperial Palace and the Martial Alliance had colluded, but it was a truth that could not be spoken aloud.

That did not mean everyone remained still. Enraged after losing their elders, the Hwangbo Clan proclaimed that the Imperial Palace and the Martial Alliance were in league and demanded the truth about the Great Toad of the Eastern Sea and the guiyou-month incident.

The result was the annihilation of the Hwangbo Clan.

A family that had formed one pillar of the Five Great Families vanished in an instant after being branded traitors. “How did the martial world become so frozen?”

“Because of that damned Imperial Palace.”

“Watch your tongue. You’ll bring disaster on yourself.” Cheong-ui rebuked the snarling Cheong-hwa.

After Muk Hui-yeong disappeared, Cheong-hwa’s speech and behavior had grown extremely rough. Even before, he had not exactly possessed the proper bearing of a Daoist, but he had never gone this far.

Now he had changed entirely.

It was not only Cheong-hwa who had changed. The balance of the martial world shifted greatly from the guiyou month onward.

Aside from the Zhuge Clan, the Five Great Families all sealed their gates in protest over the annihilation of the Hwangbo Clan.

The Nine Great Sects, too, had no place that could raise a strong voice except Mount Hua Sect, which had sided with the Martial Alliance. That was because all the others had lost masters.

As the power and influence of the old giants, the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families, rapidly shrank, the smaller sects naturally began to rise in turn.

The ones that stood out most were Kwaehwal Grove of Shanxi, Heaven’s Will Gate of Anhui, and Yeonhui Manor of Hebei. And along with that, the unorthodox factions that had been suppressed by the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families united to form the Private Martial Union.

They judged that now was their chance.

The reason they did not use the character for evil in their name was that the Private Martial Union had been formally registered with the Imperial Palace. It took less than half a year for the martial world to fracture into contending heroes like this.

That was how many forces had been lurking in the shadows, waiting only for the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families to decline.

In that situation, the Nine Great Sects could not recover their influence. Just as the Prefect had come to Wudang a moment ago, the Imperial Palace kept them under constant surveillance and pressure.

The Wudang Sect in particular was the group the Imperial Palace kept under the harshest watch.

In an utterly ridiculous decision, the Imperial Palace deemed Muk Hui-yeong the one responsible for the Guiyou Shipwreck. The Imperial Palace immediately stripped the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company of its maritime trade monopoly and imposed an enormous fine on it for causing turmoil in the martial world.

It was enough to set a new record for the largest fine ever imposed by the Imperial Court on a single organization.

No matter how soundly the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company had been run, it was a fine it could never endure. “Hoo.”

Cheong-ui sighed in frustration.

The rule of noninterference between officials and martial sects had long since become nothing but empty words. As though it had been waiting for this, the Imperial Palace began intervening directly in the martial world.

It demanded detailed registration from any sect or family above a certain scale, and every quarter it even selected model sects and families to support. Sects and families with pride did not place themselves beneath the Imperial Palace, but newly founded sects and families ran about desperately in hopes of catching its favor.

That was how the Imperial Palace came to hold the entire martial world firmly in its grip.

“Would things have been different if Hui-yeong had been here?” Cheong-ui asked.

Cheong-hwa could not answer.

That was because Cheong-hwa’s only consolation was that Muk Hui-yeong had at least not lived to see this suffocating world. “Senior Brother.”

“Yes.”

“When do you think I will finally be able to let Hui-yeong go?” “You never will. How could you cut out the mark seared into your heart?”

“Then I suppose I will suffer for the rest of my life.”

At Cheong-hwa’s calm, despairing words, Cheong-ui could not refute him. In truth, the life of a master who had sent his disciple ahead first could only be painful forever.

“I should have hit him less.”

Cheong-hwa laughed weakly. It was a day when everyone longed for the same one person.

* * *

I made a small burial mound on a hill overlooking the shore. It was winter, so the ground was hard, but for me, now that I had learned martial arts, that much was nothing.

“Rest comes before glory, Uncle.”

White breath curled from my lips. I did not know where this place was.

The moment I came out of the sea, the only thought in my mind had been to make Uncle a grave. Only after bowing twice did I look around.

Judging by the terrain, it was not the Zhoushan Archipelago.

It seemed I had drifted a very long way. “My appearance is a complete disaster.”

No matter how fine silk garments had once been, after spending years with only a single outfit, it was only natural that they had become rags.

I had not cut my hair either, because I had wanted to do it outside, and now it hung to my waist. First, I needed to find out where this was and what time it was now.

I did not have the strength to use qinggong.

That was because every bit of mental strength had been spent climbing upward in that bubble. I simply walked along barefoot.

Sometimes sharp fragments of stone scratched my feet and drew blood, but I did not even care.

There was no village near the place where I had washed ashore. Where was this place?

Even I, who had traveled through most notable places of the Central Plains, found the terrain unfamiliar.

It seemed to be the sort of place where very few people lived, because even after what felt like an hour of walking I saw no one. Only after walking another hour and a half did I finally spot smoke rising in the distance.

The moment I saw smoke, I moved using the Heavenly Demon Lightness Art.

And in the next instant, I nearly fell over. Come to think of it, in the confined space of the burial mound, I had never once used the Heavenly Demon Lightness Art at full power.

Because it was much faster than I had expected, I reduced my speed a little and ran on.

The smoke that had looked distant was suddenly right before my eyes. The village was nothing more than a small hamlet where commoners lived together.

I searched for an inn, but to my astonishment there was not a single shop of any kind, let alone an inn. It was simply a village where people lived together.

And in such a village, a strange outsider like me could not help but attract attention.

As I looked about and walked around, the villagers also cast sidelong glances at me. Apparently I looked suspicious enough that one of the adults sent the children playing outside back into their homes.

“Ahem, where have you come from?”

The man who had sent the children away approached me and asked with a face full of forced courage. It seemed he was suppressing his fear.

That made sense, since I looked like a beggar and even had a sword hanging at my waist.

Trying to show that I was harmless, I put on the friendliest smile I could. “Ah, I am just a traveler passing through. I was thirsty, so I followed the smoke here, but there doesn’t seem to be an inn.”

“A traveler passing through? Where are you from?”

“Hubei.” I naturally named Hubei, where the Wudang Sect was.

At that, the villager’s expression turned strange.

“Hubei?” “That’s right. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing wrong. It’s just that you’ve come from very far away.”

I did not ask the rustic question of where exactly I was. Because he would tell me on his own.

“To come all the way from Hubei to Hainan, you must have spent quite a long time on the road.”

I was startled, but I did not show it. Collapsed Hachido belonged to the Zhoushan Archipelago in Zhejiang.

Yet I had drifted all the way down to Hainan Island. Only then did it begin to feel real that I had been in another world.

“It wasn’t a short journey.”

“So it wasn’t.” “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could I have a cup of water?”

At my smile, the villager looked reluctant, but he still led me into his home.

“Here.” The villager poured water and handed it to me.

As I drank, I spoke as casually as I could.

“Now that I think of it, how many years has it been since the current emperor ascended the throne?” “You don’t know that?”

“I’m momentarily confused. Was it the fourteenth year, or the fifteenth?”

I simply guessed. But the villager’s expression became even stranger than when he heard I had come from Hubei.

“What are you talking about? This is the tenth year of Geonil. Yesterday was Ipchun….”

An era name changes when the emperor changes. I had said the fourteenth or fifteenth year on the assumption that five or six years had passed, but the tenth year was far too early.

That was because it had been Chuseo of the ninth year of Geonil when I set out for the Zhoushan Archipelago in search of Longyuan.

“…Ah. Right. I got confused for a moment.” I tried to brush it off, but my hand trembled and I ended up spilling all the water I had been drinking down my chin.

This differed far too much from what Zhu Mun-hwan and I had expected.

The years we spent inside the burial mound had not been five. At most, it had only been half a year.