Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 54 - Kick Off the Torch Stand (5)
Chapter 54 – Kick Off the Torch Stand (5)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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In front of the Three Purities Hall, I saw Myeong-seong with a pale face. He looked as though he was afraid, wavering over whether to go inside or not.
“Senior Brother Myeong-seong.”
When I called him from behind, Myeong-seong was so startled he nearly jumped and turned around.
“Ah. Junior Brother.”
Seeing me, Myeong-seong let out a sigh of relief. Even so, he only stood there awkwardly without saying more. From the way he kept glancing up at me and then turning his face away, he clearly had something he wanted to say.
“What is it?”
“…Thank you.”
“Was saying that really so difficult?”
I smiled at him. Myeong-seong’s face reddened.
“No. It’s just that I showed you something shameful, Junior Brother. It made me wonder what kind of senior brother this is.”
“A senior brother does have to be senior-brother-like to count as one.”
At my words, Myeong-seong’s face drooped. But I had no hobby of tormenting children.
“But you’re a proper senior brother, so it’s fine.”
Myeong-seong flinched. Color came briefly back to his face, only to darken once more.
“That can’t be true. You probably saw me crying too.”
“What’s wrong with crying? I cried a lot too.”
That wasn’t a lie. Nor was it something I said just to comfort Myeong-seong.
I too had cried plenty when I was drowning in a swamp of inferiority. Behind people who spoke better than I did, people who earned money better than I did.
Now that I thought back on it, I was probably able to cry like that because I had been serious about my talent and sincere about commerce. And I thought Myeong-seong was the same.
“At your age, Senior Brother, to be that desperate over something is something to take pride in. Truly.”
“It doesn’t really hit me.”
“You’ll feel it for yourself later.”
Myeong-seong tilted his head. Everyone has a time like that. A time when they look back and think, how did I manage to live so earnestly like that?
“Still, don’t grow too impatient. A bird that has sat on its perch for three years, when it flies once, will pierce the heavens, and when it cries once, it will startle the world.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll understand later.”
“Why is everything later with you?”
“Because you’re at an age where you have more life left to live than life already lived.”
Even so, after talking with me, Myeong-seong seemed to calm down a little.
“Let’s go, Junior Brother.”
“Yes.”
Myeong-seong boldly stepped forward into the Sect Leader’s room first. Inside the Sect Leader’s room were already the Sect Leader, Cheong-ui, and our master, Cheong-hwa.
“You’ve come.”
“Yes. I am sorry for causing concern.”
Myeong-seong bowed his head deeply. Even so, his back didn’t bend. He might regret his own choice, but he wasn’t collapsing in despair. Perhaps that, even more than his increased internal energy, was the true stroke of fortune.
With nervous feelings, I looked back and forth between Cheong-ui and Myeong-seong. Cheong-ui was looking at Myeong-seong with a hard expression. Myeong-seong clenched his fist tightly and did not avoid that gaze.
“Myeong-seong. You disregarded my words and misused the Supreme Clarity Pill.”
“Yes. That is correct.”
“For a third-generation disciple to disobey the Sect Leader’s words is insubordination that cannot be permitted, and conduct tantamount to deceiving the master and betraying the ancestors.”
“Yes.”
Myeong-seong answered meekly. It might’ve felt unfair. For trying to fill in what he lacked in his own talent, for that to be called deceiving the master and betraying the ancestors. But now wasn’t the time for me to intervene.
“More wrong than that is the fact that you fell into heart demons. As a Daoist, had you not neglected sitting in forgetfulness and fasting of the mind, you would not have given rise to such heart demons.”
“Yes. I know.”
“Confess your heart demons with your own mouth.”
Myeong-seong hesitated. Cheong-ui’s stern gaze pierced straight through him. Soon, resolve settled into Myeong-seong’s eyes as well.
“I grew impatient seeing my senior and junior brothers advance ahead of me. Not only my senior brothers, but even my junior brothers went ahead of me, and I began to doubt my own talent. Then the Sect Leader gave me the Supreme Clarity Pill. To me, it felt like the only opportunity I had.”
Myeong-seong’s voice seemed to want to remain steady, but it grew more and more choked with tears. This was his time to repent with his own mouth.
“Perhaps I envied and resented my own martial brothers, who are as close to me as blood siblings. That frightened me. I thought I was ruining myself.”
His emotions surging, Myeong-seong stopped speaking for a moment and sobbed.
After a brief silence, Cheong-ui opened his mouth.
“You know your own wrongdoing well. In order to set an example for the sect, I will hand down punishment upon you.”
“I will accept it humbly.”
Cheong-hwa too looked at Myeong-seong with pity. But Myeong-seong had stopped crying and was trying to show composure. Was it because I, his junior brother, was standing behind him?
“Third-generation disciple Myeong-seong, I appoint you as a future Taiji Sword Guardian. From now on, as a future Taiji Sword Guardian representing Wudang, you will bear obligations greater than those of an ordinary disciple, render supreme devotion to the sect, and never neglect your own advancement.”
At those words, not only Myeong-seong and I, but even Cheong-hwa’s eyes went wide. Stammering, Myeong-seong managed to speak.
“W-What do you mean by that, Sect Leader?”
“Exactly what you heard. From now on, you will be trained as a future Taiji Sword Guardian. That is the punishment I am giving you.”
Cheong-ui went even further than that. He pulled a jade casket from his robes. It was the same kind of jade casket we’d seen before. In other words, a Supreme Clarity Pill.
“A future Taiji Sword Guardian is given one Supreme Clarity Pill. Much of the energy from the one you consumed will have been lost, so do not repeat your mistake. This time, take it only after everything is properly prepared.”
“…Ah.”
Letting out a short cry, Myeong-seong received the jade casket holding the Supreme Clarity Pill. Both his hands trembled violently.
Even Cheong-hwa, standing behind Cheong-ui, was just blinking in shock. It seemed Cheong-hwa too had never expected Cheong-ui to forgive Myeong-seong like this.
Clutching the jade casket tightly in one hand, Myeong-seong dropped into a full prostration before Cheong-ui.
“The Sect Leader’s grace is as vast as the sea.”
“Go now. I have things to say to Hui-yeong and Cheong-hwa as well.”
“Yes.”
Myeong-seong bit his lips tightly and backed out of the room. The moment he left, Cheong-hwa exhaled harshly.
“Pahaa. I thought I was going to suffocate to death.”
“Why were you even holding your breath?”
“Didn’t you talk as though you were about to cripple his dantian?”
Cheong-hwa glared resentfully at Cheong-ui. It seemed Cheong-ui had been toying with him. A smile rose at the corner of Cheong-ui’s lips.
“Laozi said, ‘Governing a great state is like cooking a small fish.’ If even a great country must be governed with such care, then how much more delicately must one guide a young disciple?”
“I’m afraid the sect’s discipline may grow lax because of my disciple. Even so, it remains true that he disobeyed the Sect Leader’s words, does it not?”
“What, shall I call him back and truly punish him?”
“No, that’s not what I mean…”
Cheong-hwa trailed off. Cheong-hwa, who could seize me and shake me whenever he wished, looked as though he were still dancing in the palm of Cheong-ui’s hand before his senior brother.
“If Myeong-seong had failed to understand his own wrongdoing and instead stiffened his neck, or if it had seemed he still retained even the slightest bit of such a mind, then I would have punished him severely. But Myeong-seong was not like that. He sincerely repented his own fault, and it was plain to see that he had grown by using it as a stepping stone. If he achieved on his own the very growth we should’ve led him to, how could I not reward him?”
Without realizing it, I nodded at Cheong-ui’s words. Yes. A child with that kind of grit and determination would succeed greatly somehow or other.
Educating each person differently according to the person. That was what education meant in its most fundamental sense.
“Even so, the Taiji Sword Guardians test is still underway. If you select him like this, might the other disciples not become dissatisfied?”
“Selecting the Taiji Sword Guardians is within my authority. If they have complaints, they can become Sect Leader themselves.”
At Cheong-ui’s decisive words, even Cheong-hwa clicked his tongue. Then again, within a sect, the Sect Leader possessed absolute authority.
“If, because of this, someone comes to think it doesn’t matter whether one disobeys the Sect Leader’s words, or if someone thinks Myeong-seong received undeserved favoritism, then that child simply lacks cultivation. That too is a task we must carry.”
“I have learned something, Senior Brother.”
“Learning has no end.”
The exchange between Cheong-hwa and Cheong-ui sent ripples through my own heart as well. I had been entirely convinced that Myeong-seong would be punished. That was the sort of organization I knew.
Rewards for good deeds, punishments for wrong ones. Since a clear system of rewards and punishments formed the discipline of a merchant company, I had made the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company follow the same rule.
Yet the Sect Leader had shown mercy to a young disciple. This would probably become an immense source of motivation for Myeong-seong. Not merely enough to make him fumble upward, but enough to kick off the perch and soar.
Had I ever looked that deeply into the people under me and handed down rewards and punishments tailored to them? No. In the time it would’ve taken to look after my people, I was always too busy planning one more business venture.
How many times had I punished people who deserved rewards? And how many times had I rewarded those who deserved punishment? As a leader, that was no different from guiding people down the wrong path. How many people did I, as an individual, influence?
“I learned something as well, Sect Leader. Thank you.”
I too spoke to Cheong-ui with complete sincerity. Cheong-ui smiled.
“Do you finally feel a little like becoming a martial artist now?”
“A little.”
“Even now, if you become a main-sect disciple, I’ll place you among the Taiji Sword Guardians.”
“That’s all right.”
Cheong-ui smacked his lips like a fisherman who’d failed to catch anything. I only smiled at him.
Now it was no longer Myeong-seong’s turn, but mine.
“Since Myeong-seong has received his reward, is it my turn to receive punishment?”
“In my heart, I’d like to do that. To think you would refuse the Sect Leader’s request. Insolent brat.”
Even so, Cheong-ui laughed loudly, and didn’t seem all that displeased. He must have felt proud, having just seen with his own eyes that his young disciples were growing well.
“This is what I will give you.”
Cheong-ui handed me a small wooden box from atop the desk. Was it another elixir or something? Even so, if it was free, then whatever it was would be fine by me.
“May I open it?”
“Yes.”
Carefully, I opened the wooden box. Inside was a single rolled-up sheet of paper. When I unfurled it, unexpected words were written there.
“A promissory note?”
“A note from the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company. It should be worth around one thousand nyang of silver.”
“…And?”
“Now it’s yours.”
Hah. I tried to stop the corners of my mouth from rising, but there was no way to do it.
“Is it really all right for a Daoist to give money this directly as a reward?”
“I merely gave you what would satisfy you the most. Satisfaction wards off danger. That, too, is a teaching of the scriptures.”
Cheong-ui continued.
“I heard you founded a merchant company outside. With a note worth around one thousand nyang of silver, you should at least be able to become acquainted with a branch master of the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company.”
How did he even know that connections were important to a merchant company? They did say that a gift should be what the other person wants. I truly hadn’t expected him to give me a reward so perfectly suited to my heart.
“It truly was the reward I needed.”
“Unlike Daoists, you are someone who wishes to fill things. Yet only one who knows how to fill can also know how to empty.”
“The granary of my greed doesn’t know how to be satisfied. It just keeps expanding.”
“You are clever, so soon enough you will understand whether emptying is satisfying, or whether filling is satisfying.”
Cheong-ui was a good man, but I couldn’t agree with him on that one point. No merchant wished to empty his granary.
Even so, with gratitude toward Cheong-ui, who had given me such a great lesson, I offered a deep bow and withdrew.
Before I knew it, I had suddenly gained one thousand nyang of silver. With that I could buy talent from the Martial Talent Shop, or stock up on more Green Forest Twelve Forms. Since it was windfall money, it was a hand I could use any way I wished.
While I was wrapped up in those happy worries, suddenly the Hall of Preserved Wholeness called for me. A message had arrived addressed to me.
Could it be Father? But Father wasn’t the sort of person who would go out of his way to send me a message.
When I unrolled the message, as expected, it wasn’t Father. The sender of the message was Jo Chung-heon, the foreman of my merchant company.
I’d told him, if there was anything to report, to send a message to Wudang. I read through the contents, and immediately my brow furrowed hard.
– There is a force checking the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.