Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 41 - Merchant Association (4)

Chapter 41 – Merchant Association (4)

===================

Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

Jeon Gil-sang’s ghost-head saber thrust straight in. It was a rough saber style befitting a martial artist of the unorthodox path.

“Senior Brother. Please stand back.”

“You don’t need help?”

“Of course not.”

I leisurely unfolded Azure Cloud Steps and slipped past Jeon Gil-sang’s saber.

It seemed that Jeon Gil-sang’s pride was slightly scratched when I even spoke while dodging.

“You dare act relaxed in front of me?”

“Listen to an unorthodox-path bastard talking like he’s something.”

I snorted. Only then did I draw my sword and meet Jeon Gil-sang’s blade.

Jeon Gil-sang’s saber path gradually began to tangle more and more chaotically. He merely swung it without rules or method, yet it was threatening because it blatantly aimed for vital points.

In a way, I was more used to martial arts like this. Most of the martial arts I had seen in my previous life had been like this.

But unlike the me of that time, the me now had learned Wudang’s martial arts. Even if it was only the very basic Three Calamities Sword, its depth was different.

The rougher the martial art I faced, the more the Three Calamities Sword’s leisurely grace shone. That was because the subtlety of Wudang martial arts lay in returning the other party’s strength, using it, and striking back.

It would be a mistake to think the Three Calamities Sword was merely composed of horizontal cuts, diagonal cuts, and vertical cuts. If you only changed the linking motions smoothly, countless variations could emerge. In fact, the simpler the forms were, the easier it was to create variations.

Jeon Gil-sang’s expression changed completely after exchanging blades with me. He retreated far back and glared at me.

“You bastard, are you from Wudang?”

“Oh. You’ve got an eye for it.”

“There is nowhere else in the world that uses such a limp, wavering sword art except Wudang.”

Jeon Gil-sang ground his teeth. Then he suddenly started taking off his upper garment. At his waist I could see the mark of a large stab wound.

“Do you see this?”

“You should’ve just died when you got that wound.”

“This wound was made by one of you Wudang long-noses. The bastard didn’t even tell me his Daoist title. He said a name was too good for the likes of me.”

“Sounds like an excellent grandmaster.”

“I’ll repay this wound.”

“Why are you repaying it to me?”

“Shut up!”

The sharp ghost-head saber slashed toward my shoulder. Jeon Gil-sang, who had been standing far away, was suddenly right in front of me. What was astonishing was that I could see his footwork.

I immediately guided the ghost-head saber aside with my sword as if sweeping it with a broom. Swift Movement, a seventh-grade talent, clearly surpassed Jeon Gil-sang. After constantly seeing only orderly and clean movements in Wudang, looking at Jeon Gil-sang’s footwork was frustrating because it was full of wasted motion.

“Oh.”

As I elegantly diverted the ghost-head saber, even Myeong-gyeong, who had become absorbed in the fight before he knew it, let out an exclamation.

The only one here who could recognize how refined the technique I had just displayed was would be Myeong-gyeong. Certainly, once even the Three Calamities Sword Art was backed by deep enough insight to carry the subtlety of softness overcoming hardness, it was not something to be despised as a mere street-market martial art.

“You’re nothing but fast like a rat!”

Jeon Gil-sang shouted. When I had gone to Yichang with the first-generation disciples, I had once heard a joke like that.

There were things martial artists said when they were losing.

Rat.

Trickery.

Cowardly.

You damned bastard.

Heterodox arts.

There were many words like that. They said the moment you heard words from that list, you could already sense victory. Cheong-su, who had heard that from behind us, scolded us for predicting victory before the outcome was even decided, but anyway, that was the saying.

No matter how fierce a reputation Jeon Gil-sang had in Wuhan, it was only natural, in a sense, that he could not even match a third-generation disciple of Wudang. After all, the Nine Great Sects were places where the very peaks of talent in the Central Plains gathered.

“This is easier than I expected, Senior Brother.”

“Don’t let your guard down.”

I had never heard Jeon Gil-sang’s name even in the past. That meant he was not the sort of martial artist who had made a name anywhere important. He had merely been a ruffian famous only in Wuhan. Honestly, it seemed Myeong-gyeong could have beaten him well enough too.

“You damned bastard!”

“Oh. My odds of winning just rose even higher, Senior Brother.”

“I said don’t let your guard down.”

Jeon Gil-sang was so little of a match for me that I could fight him while chatting with Myeong-gyeong. I played with him a bit, then grabbed my scabbard with my free hand and whipped it into Jeon Gil-sang’s ankle.

Jeon Gil-sang had no time to react to that sudden additional line of attack. I felt the heavily swung scabbard strike Jeon Gil-sang’s jutting ankle bone.

“Aagh!”

With a scream, Jeon Gil-sang slipped sideways as if on ice and collapsed.

My sword pointed at Jeon Gil-sang’s throat from a mere inch away. It was before he had even managed to brace himself on the ground and rise.

“I los…”

Without hesitation, I drove my sword straight through Jeon Gil-sang’s right hand, which was stuck flat to the ground.

“Kuaaagh!”

That swift ruthlessness startled all the onlookers, including Myeong-gyeong. I knew these types. Because I was a merchant, I had seen more unorthodox-path martial artists than orthodox-path ones.

“Junior Brother. There was no need to go that far…”

Myeong-gyeong approached as if to stop me, but I kicked Jeon Gil-sang’s wrist. The sword was still piercing his hand, so his palm tore open lengthwise.

“Ugh, ughhh!”

At the pain of living flesh being ripped apart, Jeon Gil-sang failed to live up to his large build and even had tears welling in his eyes. Of course, the people had no interest in Jeon Gil-sang’s tears.

That was because a long needle had fallen out from the wrist guard on Jeon Gil-sang’s arm. The tip of the needle gleamed green, and to anyone looking, it was obvious it had been coated in poison.

“Did you think I didn’t know your type?”

I crouched down and grabbed Jeon Gil-sang by the hair, yanking his head up. His face was twisted into a tearful mess from the pain.

“Look here, I’m not as kind as that senior brother behind me. I’ve lived seeing every filthy sight this world has to offer.”

I whispered so that only Jeon Gil-sang could hear. As if overwhelmed by my gaze, Jeon Gil-sang nodded violently.

“You’d better answer my questions well. If I decide you’re lying, I’ll just cripple you.”

“N-No. What kind of nonsense is that? Even if I tell the truth, if you decide it’s a lie, you’ll cripple me?”

“There has to be that much injustice. Isn’t what you bastards did to the East Lake Merchant Association the same sort of thing?”

At my fierce tone, Jeon Gil-sang couldn’t say anything.

When I raised the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company to the level of a Great House, I had not used virtue alone. You could not reach the very top with virtue alone. At times you had to be gentle, but at other times you had to be cruel. That was the fate of a merchant.

“A-All right. So please remove the sword from my throat.”

By now, Jeon Gil-sang would have judged me to be someone who could simply take his life if the situation called for it. I was far from the kind of pale-faced orthodox scholar who preached only chivalry.

“Who is it?”

“W-What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean. Who’s behind you?”

“Behind me? What are you talking about? Don’t you know I’m with the Wuhan Merchant Association?”

“You still think I’m a fool.”

I pulled my sword out of the ground and this time drove it into his left hand. A horrific scream rang through the bleak street.

Myeong-gyeong looked at me with frightened eyes, as if seeing a stranger. This was probably the first time he had seen a side of me like this.

But a person always has more than one face.

“The sect behind the Wuhan Merchant Association. Where is it?”

“H-How did you…?”

At my words, not only Jeon Gil-sang but the people of the East Lake Merchant Association were stunned.

It seemed the East Lake Merchant Association was too much of a small and middling association to know, but the phrase that officials and martial artists do not trespass upon one another was really only a nice-sounding facade. Even the Hebei Peng Clan, which bordered Beijing directly, maintained connections by sending martial drill instructors.

The moment I learned that the Vice Minister of Revenue was involved in this game, I assumed without question that they had some martial sect backing them. Jeon Gil-sang’s much shabbier-than-expected strength supported that conclusion.

“All that nonsense about where you’ve cleaned up and who you’ve taken down, it was all lies, wasn’t it? You’re just a thug bastard with a vicious face.”

Jeon Gil-sang’s evil reputation had spread far too widely for his actual skill. In a place as large as Wuhan, there was an unorthodox-path thug as notorious as Jeon Gil-sang, yet he was weaker than expected. That meant only one thing.

It meant there were people who could not step forward openly using Jeon Gil-sang’s name to exert force. And if they could not step forward openly, that meant they were an orthodox sect unsuited to this kind of business.

To some, it might have been a line of reasoning that required tremendous mental effort, but in the commercial world it was a rather common kind of story. That was why I could confidently act on such a deduction even while only inferring.

“Stop that!”

Right before Jeon Gil-sang could open his mouth, constables and officials came rushing in. I tilted my head. A flustered middle-aged man caught my eye.

“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

“…Young Master Muk.”

“Lord Vice Minister of Revenue.”

The one who appeared was, naturally, the high official firmly backing the Wuhan Merchant Association.

It was Vice Minister of Revenue Jin Mu-byeok.

***

Vice Minister of Revenue Jin Mu-byeok could hardly believe that the neat young man in front of him was the same person who had been holding that blood-soaked sword just moments ago. And not just some ordinary man. Wasn’t he the Divine Physician of Hubei who had saved Wuhan, Hubei from plague?

He had thought him merely a pleasant young man, but the way he had threatened Jeon Gil-sang was colder and more overbearing than even an unorthodox-path thug.

But what about now? Now he sat smiling with a hot teacup before him, looking once again exactly like the Divine Physician of Hubei. He was a young man one could not make sense of at all.

“Young Master Muk.”

“Yes, Lord Jin.”

“There seems to have been some misunderstanding. It isn’t that I am trying to shield the Wuhan Merchant Association…”

“Saying that is shielding them.”

Smiling, Muk Hui-yeong set his teacup down with an audible sound.

Ordinarily, this would have been absurd. A high official of lower third rank having his words cut off by a mere commoner who was nothing more than a lay disciple of Wudang. But the timing of the interruption was exquisitely chosen, and there was pressure in his words that made him difficult to handle casually.

‘Just what kind of bastard is he?’

It was the moment when the lucky treasure who had saved his neck became someone to be wary of instead. Right now, Muk Hui-yeong felt as troublesome as the head of a major organization. No words of substance had yet even been exchanged. That was simply the effect of his bearing alone.

“What is it that you want?”

“First, please do not overlook the Wuhan Merchant Association’s one-sided attacks on the East Lake Merchant Association.”

“Hah.”

Jin Mu-byeok laughed as if dumbfounded. He had heard that the man had founded a merchant company. But there was not a single Company Lord of any merchant company who could speak to him in such an overbearing way.

“Do I look like a civil complaints office to you right now?”

Bit by bit, anger rose in Jin Mu-byeok’s eyes as well. One was only flustered the first few times. Jin Mu-byeok too had served in office for long years and was an old snake who had met every sort of person. There was no way he would feel good when a green youth whose blood had barely dried threatened him with such a tone.

“It means you haven’t done your job up until now, so you should do it properly.”

“Do you know that right now you are insulting an official of the Imperial Court without evidence? That is fully sufficient reason to throw you into prison.”

“There is no person in this world who comes up clean when shaken. You know that.”

“And do you have the ability to shake me down?”

“I suppose I’ll have to plead my case to the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate. If I cling to his ankle and cry, won’t he at least hear me out once?”

At the mention of the Censorate, Jin Mu-byeok’s face turned ashen. Come to think of it, Muk Hui-yeong did have an acquaintance in the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

Of course, the chances that the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief would listen to Muk Hui-yeong, who had nothing, were extremely low, but even so, the mere possibility was still a huge threat.

“…I will keep a close watch on any oppression of the East Lake Merchant Association. I will warn the Wuhan Merchant Association as well.”

“Good.”

“But let me warn you too. For your sect’s sake, it would be better not to make this matter any bigger. The Wuhan Merchant Association has the Zhuge Clan behind it.”

“Ah.”

Muk Hui-yeong rubbed his palms together. It was the typical palm-rubbing of a merchant. Because the smile in his eyes lay under shadow, it looked frightening.

“So it was the Zhuge Clan.”

For some reason, Jin Mu-byeok had the sudden intuition that he had made a mistake.