Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 32 - Fallen Angel (3)

Chapter 32 – Fallen Angel (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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What exactly had I done wrong? Sure, I had drawn some attention by tossing out silver while ordering food. But it shouldn’t have been so unpleasant a thing to watch.

As I looked at the martial artist while turning over one thought after another, something suddenly caught my eye. It was his clothing. That outfit looked strangely familiar. Clothes I seemed to have seen often somewhere.

“They’re people of the Zhuge Clan, sir.”

The server whispered at my side. Ah, right. Those antique blue robes and blue tassels were the symbol of the Zhuge Clan.

“You should’ve said so sooner.”

“Ah, I assumed you would naturally know. My apologies.”

“It’s fine.”

Thinking about it, this was Xiangyang. If Jun County in Hubei was Wudang’s front yard, then Xiangyang was the Zhuge Clan’s front yard. After all, Longzhong Mountain, the Zhuge Clan’s main estate, was nearby.

And this was one of the most famous restaurants in Xiangyang. I should have expected that someone from the Zhuge Clan would be here.

“Senior Brother.”

“Hm?”

“The Zhuge Clan wants to eat together. What should we do?”

“Why?”

“How would I know?”

But if it meant sharing a table with the Zhuge Clan, there was no reason to refuse. If the Wudang Sect represented Hubei’s sects, then the Zhuge Clan represented Hubei’s great families. It could only help to get acquainted.

“For reference, if we go upstairs, there’ll probably be even more delicious food.”

“Then let’s do that.”

Myeong-gyeong’s eyes shone. With his sense of taste having been freed after years of being tied down to roots and grasses, he looked unable to control himself.

“Then please come up to the second floor.”

The server led us up. Following him to the second floor, I saw three people seated there. Judging by how the man who had been looking down at us remained standing, he was probably just a guard escort.

I quickly looked over the faces of the people seated. There sat a beautiful young woman who looked to be around eighteen.

“So you truly are young heroes of the Wudang Sect.”

The woman of the Zhuge Clan greeted us first in a friendly way. Before I could greet her, Myeong-gyeong cupped his fist first.

“I’m Myeong-gyeong of the Wudang Sect. The friend beside me is my junior brother, Muk Hui-yeong.”

“Junior brother?”

She looked slightly bewildered. Well, a child being the senior brother and I, a grown young man, being the junior brother was bound to seem strange.

“The gentleman beside you doesn’t have a Daoist name?”

“He’s a lay disciple.”

This time I answered. Her expression sank deeper into confusion.

“A lay disciple, yet sworn brothers with a main-sect disciple?”

“We have the same master.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen a case like that.”

“I imagine it would be.”

I merely shrugged. There was no need to explain at length about the Registered lay disciple system here. If they were curious, they could look into it themselves.

“My name is Zhuge Yan.”

“Pleased to… pardon?”

“What’s with that reaction?”

Without meaning to, I responded like an idiot. I hadn’t expected the name Zhuge Yan to come up here. That was an extremely famous name in the world of commerce.

Zhuge Yan, the Poison-Heart Iron Mask. There was a reason that such a vicious sobriquet had been attached to a woman from the Zhuge Clan, one of the Five Great Families and a famous house among famous houses.

Zhuge Yan was the deputy hall master of the Zhuge Clan’s external business division, the one who personally directed the Zhuge Clan’s outside business operations. She had expanded their businesses mercilessly using the Zhuge Clan’s financial power and the Imperial Court’s connections.

The problem was the method she used to expand them. She would wedge herself into the middle of local merchants, slash prices brutally low, and then buy them out when they could no longer endure. Naturally, when she acquired them, she crushed the price first.

The enemy of countless local merchants and small to medium merchant companies.

There was no telling how many people had despaired in failure and ended their own lives because of her.

“N-No, it’s nothing. Pleased to meet you.”

I covered it over vaguely and tried to sit down. Zhuge Yan stared right at me.

Big eyes, a high nose, a clear forehead. Zhuge Yan possessed every condition for beauty.

That was also why I had failed to recognize her. Since I had once run a large merchant company myself, I had opportunities to meet Zhuge Yan, who later took control of all commerce in Hubei. Back then, she had worn an iron mask. The reason iron mask was part of her sobriquet wasn’t because she was shameless. It was because she always wore an iron mask whenever she was active outside.

People had all kinds of theories about why Zhuge Yan wore a mask. Since she made so many enemies, one theory said she hid her true face. Another said she was one of the ugliest women in the Central Plains and hid it for that reason.

But seeing her now, the latter was completely false. She was beautiful enough to compete for the title of Hubei’s greatest beauty, so I had no idea how such a rumor had even begun.

“Thank you for inviting us.”

“There’s no need to thank me.”

At the coldly cutting tone, I became sure all over again that the woman before me really was Zhuge Yan.

“If I’d known you were a lay disciple, I wouldn’t have called you up.”

As expected, her personality was the same. She was famous for being despotic and overbearing. She was also known for dealing ruthlessly with anyone she judged beneath the level worth speaking to.

When someone came from a great house like the Zhuge Clan and also possessed outstanding ability, it seemed subordinates no longer looked like people at all. To speak honestly, that kind of temperament made it hard to succeed as a merchant. The only reason Zhuge Yan succeeded anyway was because she had the Zhuge Clan behind her. I disliked that from the start.

Even so, I wasn’t foolish enough to show it. I smiled slyly.

“Ha ha. Even as a lay disciple, couldn’t I still become a good friend?”

“Not at all. Could you become friends with a fish or a bird?”

“Are you saying I look like some animal?”

“I only meant that we live in different worlds.”

So she was saying she had invited me because she thought I was a main-sect disciple of Wudang, but was disappointed to find out I was only a lay disciple. Well, the value of one’s connections certainly did differ.

Since I already knew Zhuge Yan’s temperament, I just shrugged it off, but there was an unexpected threat here.

“What are you, old lady?”

“…What?”

Myeong-gyeong’s clear eyes pierced Zhuge Yan. Zhuge Yan looked as if she doubted her own ears.

“What right does an old lady have to bully my junior brother?”

Zhuge Yan looked stunned by the unexpected blow. Regaining her composure, she turned an icy gaze on Myeong-gyeong.

“I didn’t know the Wudang Sect was such a rude place.”

“You were the one who started bullying him.”

“Bullying? I simply stated the facts.”

“I stated facts too.”

“That isn’t a fact. Why should I be an old lady?”

“If that’s how you look to me, then that’s what you are.”

Zhuge Yan looked thoroughly bewildered. Then again, it probably wasn’t common for her to get into a verbal fight with a little child like this.

“And what exactly are you doing? Even if you’re his junior brother, you’re older, so there are things you ought to teach him.”

Suddenly the arrow flew back toward me. But I dodged it skillfully.

“How would I dare lecture my senior brother about his conduct? That would be deceiving the master and betraying the ancestors.”

“Honestly.”

Zhuge Yan clenched her small fist and trembled, then suddenly shot to her feet. Just when I tensed, thinking surely she wasn’t about to use martial arts, she did something unexpected.

Zhuge Yan bent sharply at the waist toward us.

“I apologize. I let myself get agitated. Young Hero Muk, I apologize to you as well. Daoist Myeong-gyeong, please calm your anger.”

Neither of us could do anything but blink at that sudden change in attitude. Before I could say anything, Myeong-gyeong struck first.

“Fine. Be careful from now on.”

“Yes. I’m sorry. This wasn’t why I proposed that we share a table. I’ve already had dishes prepared for you two, so please eat to your hearts’ content.”

What was this all of a sudden? Had she had some kind of mental break? Myeong-gyeong was innocent enough to believe what he saw, but I already knew Zhuge Yan’s temperament. She was absolutely not the type of woman to back down like this.

My suspicion was my own problem, but the fact that Zhuge Yan had ordered food was true, because one dish after another began coming out.

The food I had ordered was already expensive, but the food Zhuge Yan had ordered was even more so. More precisely, these were luxury dishes that took so long to prepare that one couldn’t eat them without reserving them in advance.

Braised bear paw, Eight-Treasure Tofu Thick Soup, red-braised shark fin. Dishes ordinary commoners would struggle to taste even once in their whole lives were brought out one after another.

“Now then, it’s my treat, so please enjoy yourselves.”

Instead of the cold expression from earlier, Zhuge Yan wore a warm smile. Her appearance was beautiful enough that I might almost have been deceived by the smiling eyes.

“Wow! Noona, you were a nice person!”

Myeong-gyeong started moving his chopsticks immediately, without the slightest suspicion. Before I knew it, her form of address had changed from old lady to noona.

“Young Hero Muk, please don’t hold back either.”

“Ah, yes. Miss, please eat as well.”

“I already ate quite a lot earlier.”

Liar. When we came into the room, there hadn’t been a trace of food smell.

I couldn’t tell what kind of scheme this snake-hearted woman was plotting. Still, what crime had the food committed? I ate it with pleasure.

Zhuge Yan truly didn’t touch a single bite and only watched us. After some time passed and we were beginning to feel full, Zhuge Yan finally spoke in an indirect voice.

“May I ask you two young heroes something?”

“Of course!”

By now Myeong-gyeong was completely won over by Zhuge Yan and pure goodwill itself. It was impossible to believe they had been trading insults only moments ago.

“You know that business Wudang started recently, right?”

“Business?”

“Yes. The warehouse business where they hold goods between wholesale and retail.”

I flinched at the unexpected words. Wasn’t that the very business I had proposed to Wudang in order to prove my merchant talent?

“Not sure. I don’t really know.”

Myeong-gyeong answered. Naturally, he wouldn’t know. He was still far too young to know and understand such things.

From the beginning, Zhuge Yan hadn’t looked like she expected Myeong-gyeong to know.

“I heard that Hall Master Cheong-su of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness is the one who started that business.”

Outwardly speaking, yes. It would look bad for Wudang if people said a mere lay disciple had done it.

But for the moment, I kept quiet. I still hadn’t fully grasped Zhuge Yan’s intentions.

“And?”

“Actually, the Zhuge Clan is interested in that business too. So I was hoping you would deliver this letter to Hall Master Cheong-su.”

“Hm? A letter?”

At Myeong-gyeong’s question, Zhuge Yan drew out a neatly folded sheet of paper from her robes. I narrowed my eyes.

“Wudang is one of the Nine Great Sects, so it lacks exchange with the commercial world, things like merchant companies and escort agencies. Our Zhuge Clan can fill that lack for you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Daoist Myeong-gyeong only needs to deliver the letter.”

Zhuge Yan covered her mouth with a white feather fan and smiled. I twisted the corner of my lips.

Now I understood. I understood why Zhuge Yan had proposed that we share a table.

This talk of a partnership was one of Zhuge Yan’s favorite methods. She would tempt weakly founded merchant companies into a joint venture, suck out only the good parts, then discard them.

Apparently she had her eye on that business. While partnering with Wudang, she would learn how the business was run, then cast Wudang aside at once.

Of course, if the naïve Daoists heard this, they might well be tempted. They weren’t people especially greedy for money in the first place. But I, Muk Hui-yeong, was different.

“Just a moment, Senior Brother.”

I spoke just as Myeong-gyeong was about to accept the letter.

Before taking it, Myeong-gyeong turned to look at me.

“Why?”

“You mustn’t accept that letter.”

At my words, Zhuge Yan’s smile froze solid.