Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 24 - Mandate of Heaven (1)
Chapter 24 – Mandate of Heaven (1)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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No wonder Cheong-hwa had unfolded a form at the end that I could never have blocked.
I had only miraculously managed to stop it.
From the beginning, Cheong-hwa had never believed that I would be able to enter the evaluation match.
I ran straight to the Hall of Exhausting the Way and stormed into the residence of Immortal Cheong-hwa.
“To open the door without even knocking. I told you at length about courtesy toward elders.”
“Are you some kind of swindler?”
“Heh heh. So instead of courtesy toward elders, you hurl abuse.”
“Didn’t you say that if I’m not a main-sect disciple, I can’t even participate in the evaluation match?”
“And didn’t I tell you that at this rate you wouldn’t be able to enter the evaluation match?”
“By that, did you mean this? Weren’t you talking about my swordsmanship?”
“No. I meant the fact that you kept stubbornly insisting on remaining a lay disciple.”
Cheong-hwa grinned brightly.
This time, even I couldn’t hold it in, and my fist flew at him.
Of course, after I threw it, I had no idea what had happened before I found myself lying flat on my back on the floor.
“The wonder of Taiji Fist lies in shifting flowers and grafting wood. Of course, the Taiji Fist taught in Wudang is on an entirely different level from what old men in the village practice for their health.”
“…This is infuriating. Seriously.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t hear what you told the sect leader? He had personally intended to bring you in as a main-sect disciple, and yet you rejected it? You really did set your mind on smearing mud on my face.”
“No, I mean, even the prefect lord doesn’t do things he doesn’t want to do.”
“It is the Mandate of Heaven for you to become a disciple of Wudang. It is not something you choose.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. I design my own life and make my own choices.”
“Even those choices are all made within the arrangement of the Primordial Heavenly Worthy.”
This damned hooked nose showed no sign whatsoever of becoming someone I could reason with.
They said that when people lost themselves in religion, they went a bit mad, and the hooked noses of Wudang were no different.
Of the Daoist-affiliated sects I had met in my previous life, Mount Hua and Zhongnan had at least been somewhat better.
They still retained something of the secular world.
But Wudang was orthodox Daoism through and through, so all they ever said was the kind of nonsense that made your head explode.
“Then why did you make me practice that blasted Three Calamities Sword Art?”
“You must have felt it yourself in our spar. If you were only a lay disciple, you never could have received my sword. If you had not trained the Three Calamities Sword Art to its limit, you wouldn’t have been able to receive even one exchange from me.”
“So?”
“That is the difference between a lay disciple and a main-sect disciple. And even then, do you still dislike the idea of becoming a main-sect disciple?”
“Yes. I dislike it. In the first place, isn’t the reason you kept me as a provisional main-sect disciple because you had already taken into account that I might not be able to become a true main-sect disciple? I’m someone unqualified to be one. Didn’t you see me wrist-flicking that sword when you weren’t around?”
“No. I believed from the beginning that you absolutely had to become a main-sect disciple. It was only Senior Brother Sect Leader who blocked it. But now that Senior Brother Sect Leader has also given permission, of course you must become one. What? Registered lay disciple? This is the first time I’ve even heard that such a system exists.”
“Even so, if such a system exists, then it ought to be used.”
“Think carefully. Senior Brother Sect Leader told me as well about the registered lay disciple, but a registered lay disciple cannot see the ultimate heights of Wudang. That means you would not be able to learn martial arts like Taiji Wisdom Sword, which is called the very essence of Wudang. Back when the Demonic Cult ran rampant, they must not have had time to teach that far while training people at speed.”
“For me, that level is enough. My dream is to be a merchant.”
“Among the four classes, merchants are the most despised. I truly don’t know how you came to hold such a dream.”
“That can only be explained as the Mandate of Heaven too, I suppose.”
“Wasn’t your life something you personally design and choose? If there is a better choice, naturally you should pick it.”
“No. The Primordial Heavenly Worthy left me with only one choice: that of a merchant.”
Our argument ran in parallel lines.
Cheong-hwa shook his head as though he were tired of it all.
“In any case, you probably intended to prove yourself before the elders through the evaluation match. That will not be possible. Not until you become a main-sect disciple, at least. Since you have already learned the Azure Cloud Steps, I wish you would simply become a main-sect disciple. Is there truly no way?”
Now Cheong-hwa had begun appealing to emotion.
But after he had stabbed me in the back with the evaluation match, there was no way I would be swayed emotionally.
“No.”
“Then there is nothing to be done. That doesn’t mean you will become something as strange as a registered lay disciple. The elders all know already. They have heard that there is a peculiar lay disciple trying to suck out Wudang’s martial arts and then run away. They’re all offended to death.”
“Why would they think that much? And in the first place, how did they even hear that?”
“Because I went around saying it.”
“You’re genuinely unlikeable, you know that?”
“You are someone who is meant to become a martial artist. To let talent bestowed like that simply rot is a great sin against the Central Plains.”
“Now you’re turning an innocent person into a criminal too?”
In the end, our argument ended without leaving anything behind.
Even so, my martial training continued.
Cheong-hwa still supervised my martial practice, and I continued receiving his instruction because I needed my martial talent recognized.
I disliked being taught by Cheong-hwa too, but there was no one else who could teach me martial arts.
Cheong-hwa, on the other hand, began teaching even more kindly.
It seemed he had decided that trying to browbeat me into it would no longer work.
Then the day of the evaluation match arrived.
As expected, I was still unable to participate in it.
That was because I was not a main-sect disciple.
Still, I was allowed to watch the evaluation match.
Judging by the fact that no other lay disciples were present, Cheong-hwa must have pulled a few strings.
That didn’t make me like him any more, of course.
Most likely this too was just another tactic to lure me in by showing me the evaluation match.
I stood beside Cheong-hwa, and on the opposite side, where the sect leader and the elders were gathered, the looks directed at me were sharp.
Given what Cheong-hwa had gone around saying, it was perhaps only natural.
When I looked at Cheong-hwa, he turned his head away.
That damned hooked nose.
“We will now begin the evaluation match.”
With Cheong-ui’s words, the evaluation match of the Myeong generation children began.
Among them were some I knew.
Though not many.
There was Myeong-seong, Cheong-hwa’s disciple, and Myeong-han, the one who had once picked a fight with him.
The evaluation match was certainly entertaining to watch.
Watching fights was fun to begin with, but since they were fighting with martial arts I knew, the entertainment doubled.
As I watched, I found myself thinking, In that situation, what move would I make?
“Next, Myeong-il and Myeong-un.”
Myeong-il was a child I had never heard of, but I knew Myeong-un was a direct junior disciple under Myeong-han.
He too had once gotten into it with me.
“Watch carefully.”
At that moment, Cheong-hwa spoke abruptly.
Naturally, I answered in a sullen tone.
“Watch what?”
“Myeong-il’s spar.”
Before I could even ask why, the evaluation match had begun.
I immediately understood why Cheong-hwa had told me to pay attention to Myeong-il.
“Ohhh!”
Cries of admiration burst out, not just among the spectators but even among the elders.
Myeong-il’s Azure Cloud Steps were graceful enough to seem as though he were gliding.
I, too, had thought that my understanding of the Azure Cloud Steps was excellent, but compared to Myeong-il’s, mine was crude.
Compared to his graceful footwork, Myeong-il’s swordsmanship was not flashy.
It was honest swordsmanship.
He did not add changes to the sword, nor bend it midway.
It simply flew toward its target.
And I knew what that was.
The beauty of simplicity.
It was the Three Calamities Sword Art.
Myeong-il was using nothing but the Three Calamities Sword Art.
“The Three Calamities Sword Art is the foundation of all martial arts. There is not a single sword art that does not contain an overhead chop, a horizontal slash, or a diagonal cut.”
Beside me, Cheong-hwa spoke in a low voice.
Even so, I could not take my eyes off Myeong-il’s martial art.
His feet traced curves, while his hands drew straight lines.
It seemed like a combination that ought to clash, yet it did not.
The curves supplemented the straight lines, and the straight lines supplemented the curves.
Myeong-un’s face had gone red.
He seemed ashamed that he was being overwhelmed by nothing but basic Azure Cloud Steps and the Three Calamities Sword Art.
Myeong-il, by contrast, remained expressionless and calm.
“Mount Tai Presses the Summit is brought down with the force of pressing the peak down until it becomes two ridges. Sweeping Across a Thousand Armies cuts through the waists of a thousand troops with one sweep. Wind and Rain in All Directions cuts as a fierce gale lays the rain flat. What do you think? Can you still call the Three Calamities Sword Art a third-rate art after seeing this?”
I had no answer.
Myeong-il’s swordsmanship truly was exactly as Cheong-hwa described.
Not a single one of his swings was light.
“That is why the Three Calamities Sword Art must possess the mystery of strength and swiftness. If one does not grasp that mystery, then it is not the Three Calamities Sword Art at all.”
“I see.”
It felt as though something buried deep in my head, beyond what I could grasp, had been pulled out and laid bare.
Myeong-il’s sword and footwork were clearly on a different level from mine.
With Sweeping Across a Thousand Armies, Myeong-il opened Myeong-un’s body, then followed up like lightning with Wind and Rain in All Directions.
Myeong-un took the blow squarely on the shoulder and crashed flat to the ground.
“Victory goes to Myeong-il.”
With the sect leader’s declaration, Myeong-il turned and returned to his place.
Cheong-yu, whom I had seen before, hoisted the unconscious Myeong-un over his back and left the area.
He was likely taking him to the infirmary.
“He’s impressive.”
I said that with complete sincerity.
Cheong-hwa smiled faintly.
“If you become a main-sect disciple, you can unfold martial arts even more impressive than that.”
“No thanks.”
I heard Cheong-hwa click his tongue, but I paid it no mind.
Myeong-il was certainly the greatest prodigy among the Myeong generation.
He wasn’t named Il for nothing.
After watching Myeong-il’s match, the other matches among the Myeong generation children could only look like children’s play.
And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
“Myeong-il really is outstanding.”
“He’ll become the next Taiji Wisdom Sword.”
Even while the other children were fighting, there were many people whispering about Myeong-il instead.
In the end, the evaluation match concluded with Myeong-il’s final victory.
In a sense, it was only the natural result.
“Hui-yeong.”
“Yes.”
We walked together toward the Hall of Exhausting the Way.
By the time the evaluation match ended, it had grown dark, but now I too could walk all over Wudang Mountain without a torch.
“Do you truly dislike becoming a main-sect disciple that much?”
There was genuine seriousness in Cheong-hwa’s voice.
This time, I answered with sincerity as well.
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“And yet, I heard from Senior Brother Sect Leader that if you fail to gain the elders’ recognition, then you must become a main-sect disciple.”
“That’s true as well.”
“If you become a main-sect disciple, what will you do then?”
“Then I’ll have my dantian crippled and leave. Life would be inconvenient without a dantian, but as long as I don’t overdo things, it should still be manageable.”
“So that’s how far it goes. You really have accepted being a merchant as your Mandate of Heaven.”
Strictly speaking, I was still wavering, but for now I had to show my resolve clearly.
“If that’s the case, then I have something to apologize for. I truly wished for you to become a main-sect disciple, and in my greed I even spread bad words about you among the elders.”
“That was a bit much, yes.”
“It was. As a Daoist, I slandered another. How lacking my cultivation must be.”
I had spoken half in jest, but Cheong-hwa was serious.
“If you are to gain the elders’ recognition now, it will likely be impossible unless you defeat Myeong-il. You will probably end up becoming a main-sect disciple.”
“Is that so.”
“But from what you say, if becoming a main-sect disciple is the only option, then you would rather have your dantian crippled and descend the mountain.”
“Yes.”
Cheong-hwa took a money pouch from his sleeve and handed it to me.
“Open it.”
When I opened it, it was full of silver.
At a glance, there seemed to be at least a hundred nyang.
I looked at Cheong-hwa, startled.
“It’s the draft from Wuhan Money House that you entrusted to me before.”
“But that was only one hundred copper coins.”
“Since I kept it for you, I should pay interest on it, shouldn’t I?”
“Was it interest at such extortionate rates? No, more importantly, where did a sum this great even come from? Even the Hall of Preserved Wholeness wouldn’t hand out this much so easily.”
“From time to time, people I helped while traveling the jianghu send me money or valuables. I converted them into silver and kept them. A Daoist ought not to hoard private wealth, but in truth everyone does. And I thought that perhaps someday I would have need of it.”
“You kept quite a lot, then.”
“That is all the wealth I possess.”
Cheong-hwa smiled as he said it.
He said it as though it were nothing, but to me it was a shock.
What sort of person handed his entire fortune over to someone else?
As a born merchant, it was something I could never understand.
“With this, you should make capital for your business. Since my own greed disturbed another person’s Mandate of Heaven, shouldn’t I at least give this much compensation?”
“…Immortal.”
“But I too am a person of Wudang, and so I cannot break Wudang’s rules. To me, Wudang’s discipline is no different from the Mandate of Heaven itself.”
Qi burst forth from Cheong-hwa’s body.
The overwhelming force froze my whole body in place.
“Lay disciple Muk Hui-yeong. What Wudang has given, Wudang now reclaims.”
A blue light flashed in Cheong-hwa’s eyes.