Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 51 - Kick Off the Torch Stand (2)

Chapter 51 – Kick Off the Torch Stand (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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If the Mount Hua Sect had its Plum Blossom Sword Guardians and Shaolin Temple had its Eighteen Arhats, then Wudang had its Taiji Sword Guardians.

What they had in common was that they were all the elite who represented their sects. As a bonus, there was of course a corresponding test as well.

That test was rumored to be vicious, but no one ever gave up on becoming one of the Taiji Sword Guardians out of fear of it. Who would abandon a chance to seize the honor of representing Wudang?

As such, the Taiji Sword Guardians test was in practice the same as testing all of Wudang’s main-sect disciples. Instead, since it was held on a ten-year cycle and one could not take it twice, it applied only to second-generation and third-generation disciples.

“But if you compare second-generation and third-generation disciples, doesn’t that make the third-generation disciples overwhelmingly disadvantaged?”

“The Taiji Sword Guardians do not simply look at martial strength. They look at age, how much martial art one has mastered, what one’s conduct in Wudang has been up to now, how great one’s chivalrous spirit is, and how strong one’s mental strength is. In your case, the only thing they’ll be looking at is the mental-strength test.”

“I see. That’s a relief. I don’t really have much chivalrous spirit.”

“In any case, you are not an eligible candidate for the Taiji Sword Guardians test. You’ll simply be taking part of the exam together with them. Only main-sect disciples can become Taiji Sword Guardians.”

“Then can I just take it casually?”

“If you don’t want to learn the Dual Intent Heart Art, then by all means do so.”

Cheong-hwa made sure to emphasize that he’d gotten this chance by nearly smashing his head into the ground. Honestly, I was grateful. I didn’t know about the head-butting part, but in any case, it isn’t easy to lower oneself for someone else.

“So how exactly does the mental-strength test work?”

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a mental-strength test.”

There was something about Cheong-hwa’s smile that made him look like an unorthodox-path ruffian. Wasn’t it a violation of Daoist dignity for a Daoist to wear such a petty smile?

“Since there isn’t a single person who’ll tell you even if you go looking, you might as well just train the Flowing Cloud Sword Art. I showed it to you once last time, didn’t I?”

“Yes.”

I followed Cheong-hwa’s words without complaint. In truth, sword training was fresh and enjoyable for someone like me, who had spent his whole life seated with a brush.

Even with the same sword art, the line of movement changed depending on the life one had lived. That was a truly strange thing to experience.

I thought I was swinging it in an orthodox manner, yet my junior brothers kept chiming in that my sword felt too sharp and too cold.

That was likely because I had repeatedly lived in the ruthless commercial world by trampling on others and climbing over them. In that sense, the sword was a kind of window that let me rediscover the me I’d forgotten.

“Starting with the Flowing Cloud Sword Art, the swordsmanship becomes a little more difficult, so even you won’t be able to rely only on talent.”

“I’m putting in plenty of effort too.”

“Yes. It does look as though you’re doing a bit better than before.”

In truth, the Flowing Cloud Sword Art was too much for Sword Talent (Low Grade) to unfold fully. It really was about time to buy higher-grade talent. But if the seed I’d sown in the form of a merchant company was to bear fruit, it would have to at least wait until next spring.

Until then, was there some way to earn even a little money on the side? That was something I’d have to think about. For now, getting through the mental-strength test came first.

“And if possible, don’t bother your senior brothers. It doesn’t apply to you, so you don’t know, but for those children, this test is one they consider extremely important.”

“Master, I at least have that much tact.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

Only after hearing my answer did Cheong-hwa finally leave with a reassured expression.

Right now, the second-generation and third-generation disciples were facing the Taiji Sword Guardians test. A test one could only take once in a lifetime. There was no way they wouldn’t be nervous.

I went to the back yard behind the Hall of Exhausting the Way. In the back yard, my senior brothers were already training with serious expressions.

I quietly took a place behind them and trained as well. Even if Sword Talent (Low Grade) wasn’t enough to fully pierce the Flowing Cloud Sword Art, and even if my original talent truly was terrible, it was still better than not swinging at all.

I only intended to do my own training and then get out of their way. Cheong-hwa had said as much, and I too didn’t want to interfere with people facing an important test.

“Um, Junior Brother.”

“Yes?”

But the one who approached first was Senior Brother Myeong-gyeong. He kept opening and closing his mouth without saying anything. It looked as though he was hesitating over whether to speak. For some reason, both his hands were behind his back.

“What is it?”

“This isn’t exactly a request a senior brother should make…”

“Then don’t make it.”

“No. I will.”

Myeong-gyeong brought forward the hands he’d been hiding. In them he held an old booklet.

“Ah. A scripture.”

“Yeah. There’s a part in here I don’t understand.”

“Ah, all right.”

As a merchant, I considered scholarly grounding nearly essential, so I’d read scriptures of pretty much every school. Myeong-gyeong had probably only come to me because I was the nearest adult, but in his own way, he’d come to the right person.

“Shi yi shengren, hou qi shen er shen xian, wai qi shen er shen cun, fei yi qi wu si ye, gu neng cheng qi si. I don’t really understand this part.”

“‘Thus the Sage places his body behind, yet it comes before; he sets his body aside, yet it is preserved. Is it not because he is without selfishness? Therefore he is able to fulfill his self.'”

“I can interpret it too. What’s difficult is the part about fulfilling the self because one doesn’t assert the self.”

“You have to distinguish between the two parts. The self in the earlier part is the ordinary self we usually mean, while the self in the latter part is the completed self. They use the same word self, but the meanings are completely different.”

Myeong-gyeong still looked puzzled. Then again, scriptures were books written by ancient sages. It would be hard to grasp all of it at such a young age.

“To explain it more precisely, the self in the first part is the lesser self, and the self in the latter part is the greater self.”

“That’s even harder.”

“All right. Among Wudang’s grandmasters, there are people said to have ascended to immortality, right?”

“Yeah.”

“To ascend to immortality, you have to become the greater self. You can’t ascend as the lesser self.”

“Then what distinguishes the lesser self from the greater self?”

As I talked with Myeong-gyeong about the scripture, at some point even Myeong-seong and Myeong-jin had quietly stopped their sword practice and were pricking up their ears. It seemed they too hadn’t understood it either.

“It says it lies in not asserting the self.”

“What does asserting the self mean? I don’t go around insisting I’m me.”

“Assertion doesn’t mean flaunting it outwardly. It means holding the awareness that I am me. Right now, Senior Brother, you’re aware of yourself as you, aren’t you?”

“Oooh. So that’s what it means.”

Myeong-gyeong let out an exclamation as if he’d understood.

“I think I get it. I can’t explain it exactly, though.”

“Then you don’t properly get it.”

“As expected, Junior Brother, you’re smart. I could tell from the way you talk to people.”

“You’re the smarter one, Senior Brother. I wasn’t reading scriptures like this at your age.”

After I gilded him a little, Myeong-gyeong’s face softened and he smiled. Children really were easy to handle.

When Myeong-gyeong left with a refreshed face, Myeong-seong watched his departing back with an expression that somehow looked envious.

Whenever Myeong-seong’s eyes accidentally met mine, he quickly turned them away, as if he had something on his conscience.

I’d tried to ask him about what was troubling him before and somehow failed to, but now didn’t feel like the time. If I did, it might create a bad effect while he was trying to focus on the test.

“…Um.”

At that moment, someone whispered from beside me. Startled, I jumped upward and looked to the side. Myeong-jin stood there expressionlessly.

“When did you get here?”

“A while ago.”

“You could’ve made your presence known.”

“I did.”

“My apologies, then. What is it?”

“Could you look at my swordsmanship a little?”

“Pardon?”

“Junior Brother, your swordsmanship is much better than mine.”

That was true enough. But was it all right for a junior brother to teach a senior brother? Since Myeong-jin didn’t seem to care, I didn’t think I had any need to care either.

Without another word, Myeong-jin unfolded his sword. Since he definitely had sword talent, I was able to see what his shortcomings were.

I corrected Myeong-jin’s posture one by one, and Myeong-jin followed without a word.

After that, whenever Myeong-gyeong and Myeong-jin had something they were curious about, they came to ask me, and I taught them sincerely. Since the test was approaching, they seemed to want to show even a slightly better side of themselves.

In the middle of all that, Myeong-seong never met my eyes. He seemed to be consciously avoiding my gaze while practicing his swordsmanship, but the training didn’t appear to be going well. From behind, I watched Myeong-seong lose his temper and slam his sword down onto the ground as well.

If I had simply been an adult, I would’ve looked after Myeong-seong, but in Wudang, I was Myeong-seong’s junior brother. There was no such thing as a junior brother looking after a senior brother. If I went over because I was worried, it would only wound Myeong-seong’s pride.

Thus, before I knew it, time flowed onward until the day the Taiji Sword Guardians test was held.

Second-generation and third-generation disciples gathered in the Great Training Ground. Ordinarily, when young disciples gathered, it was bound to be noisy, but today it was utterly quiet. Everyone plainly showed signs of tension.

“By the way, how many Taiji Sword Guardians are selected?”

“On average, around three per generation. Of course, if the elders judge them all unqualified, then there are generations where no one is chosen.”

“That’s brutal.”

“Which is why you should stop chattering.”

“Yes.”

Unlike the disciples gathered in the Great Training Ground, I was standing beside Cheong-hwa. I would be evaluated for mental strength, but I wasn’t actually taking the Taiji Sword Guardians test.

I found my senior brothers ahead, standing there tense. Myeong-seong, Myeong-gyeong, and Myeong-jin. I hoped those three would have good results. Blood bends inward, after all, and if my senior brothers did well, that was a good thing. Cheong-hwa too seemed tense, as if he felt the same.

On the platform before the Great Training Ground stood Sect Leader Cheong-ui with a solemn expression.

“You all have good eyes.”

Cheong-ui looked over the crowd with evident satisfaction.

“As you all know, the Taiji Sword Guardians are an honor representing Wudang. But even if you do not become one of the Taiji Sword Guardians, you need not be too disappointed. Simply being a disciple of Wudang is already an immense honor.”

The second-generation disciples were, at most, around my age, and the third-generation disciples were still children. In a benevolent voice, Cheong-ui embraced them.

“The most important thing for becoming one of the Taiji Sword Guardians is the mind. That is because one must overcome even hardships that seem impossible to surmount.”

The mental-strength test. I had heard from first-generation disciples I knew somewhat that more than half dropped out during this test. Of course, they didn’t tell me what the test actually was. I would find out soon enough.

At that moment, the floor of the Great Training Ground beneath the disciples began to glow, and a purple mist rose into the air. Since it was rising from empty space, it felt eerie somehow.

‘A formation.’

Having experienced several formations now, I recognized it at a glance.

“It is a reduced recreation of a formation once used by the Demonic Cult. The name of the formation is the Nine Palaces Illusion Demon Formation. The previous Taiji Sword Guardians overcame this Demonic Cult formation and then charged into the Hundred Thousand Mountains.”

The moment the name of the Demonic Cult was spoken, the disciples’ eyes changed. That was because the Demonic Cult’s formations were notorious for breaking the mind and turning people into madmen.

“Of course, several points of the formation have been altered, so it will not go as far as madness. Even so, what you experience within the formation will be more terrible than anything else, so steel yourselves.”

At Cheong-hwa’s jerk of the chin, I quietly slipped into the corner of the Great Training Ground. This was how I, too, would be included in the test.

“We will begin immediately.”

With Cheong-ui’s words, the purple mist swirled into a vortex and came crashing over us.

At the same time, the disciples standing beside me collapsed, dropped to their knees, and began vomiting.

“Keurk, keurk…”

Looking around at the children, all of their eyes were red and their faces twisted in pain.

But astonishingly, I was completely fine. I thought I understood how this formation worked.

The pure internal energy gathered by Wudang’s Daoists and demonic qi were natural opposites. That demonic qi invaded the mind and gave rise to pain and hallucinations. But I was someone who had accumulated qi through demonic qi. Far from suffering, it was easier to breathe, almost as though I’d returned home.

“U-uaaagh!”

Even so, if I looked unaffected, it would surely draw suspicion.

I immediately clutched my chest, twisted my body, and started screaming as though in agony.