Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 68 - I Always Think of You (6)

Chapter 68 – I Always Think of You (6)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“…What are you?”

Yi Hwan broke through the ceiling and dropped to the floor. His feminine tone had vanished, leaving behind only a sharp, awl-like voice full of killing intent.

“A merchant receiving a guest isn’t anything so remarkable, is it?”

“You knew I was coming?”

“I’ve heard since long ago how the Eastern Depot handles its business. They say that whenever things go even slightly wrong for you people, you simply cut them down.”

“You’ve heard some absurd nonsense from somewhere.”

The beautiful corners of Yi Hwan’s mouth curved upward. Unlike the calm smile Muk Hui-yeong wore, his was a fierce smile.

“Still, the fact that it isn’t entirely wrong is rather humiliating and embarrassing for a man of the Eastern Depot. It feels as though my clothes have been stripped away.”

“I don’t particularly wish to imagine you naked.”

“Can’t you tell by looking at this face? I was quite popular in the Palace. There were people who’d make you faint from shock if you heard their names, and even they lusted after me.”

“I don’t have a taste for men.”

“Then again, for a merchant you do look like someone who doesn’t know how to enjoy himself. The sort of dreary fellow who kills the mood at drinking parties, perhaps.”

“Working is better than playing. In that sense, I really don’t care for revelry.”

“Exactly right. I’m good at reading faces. Looking at you now, it seems like even that part of you is a bit small.”

“Mine? When I was young, my nickname was Red Hare on the Bed.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. That’s obviously a lie.”

At the malicious gaze of Yi Hwan, who had detected the lie, Muk Hui-yeong flinched. Then he admitted it obediently.

“You’re right. That was a lie. Still, it’s not smaller than the Chief Director’s, is it? Or rather, maybe I should say it can’t be.”

“If you go to the Imperial Palace, there’s a place called the Hall of Six Roots Preservation. It’s where they keep the things cut off from eunuchs. Mine is still there, so if you saw it, you’d be completely intimidated.”

“What does it matter if it was once Lu Bu or Yue Fei while it was alive? It’s a corpse now.”

“Haven’t you ever heard the story that dead Zhuge Liang drove living Sima Yi into retreat?”

“Even now, whenever it rains, the place below still aches, doesn’t it? Eunuchs always do the castration on rainy days so the screams will be drowned out. To think it was your own choice to be cut, and yet you still made such a fuss over it.”

Yi Hwan’s expression shook. For an instant he looked pained, as though he were feeling phantom pain in his loins.

After suffering that mental blow, Yi Hwan’s lips straightened into a line again. Then blue force exploded out from his body all at once. In his eyes, blue radiance burned like living flame.

“Say whatever you like. You’re going to die soon.”

The wavering blue gleam in his eyes instantly flattened into a thin, taut line. The blue line cast by that gaze curved swiftly and marked Muk Hui-yeong’s rear. A dagger that had appeared from beneath his sleeve was already in Yi Hwan’s hand.

“Die!”

With a shrill shout that stabbed the ears, the dagger shot toward Muk Hui-yeong’s neck.

At that instant Yi Hwan doubted his own eyes. Muk Hui-yeong’s neck and the dagger in Yi Hwan’s right hand, which had been drawing so close, suddenly seemed impossibly far away. Muk Hui-yeong turned around slowly, as though moving through a dream.

Yi Hwan’s eyes met Muk Hui-yeong’s as he turned. Strangely enough, Muk Hui-yeong wasn’t looking at the flying dagger at all, but at Yi Hwan himself. In Muk Hui-yeong’s eyes there flickered not the blue spiritual force built up by righteous sect men, but a purple power that ought rather to be called demonic.

Ordinary people would simply have thought it was some sinister force, but Yi Hwan, the Chief Director of the Eastern Depot, knew exactly what that energy was.

“Demonic qi!”

A chill shot down Yi Hwan’s spine, and he immediately retrieved the dagger and sprang far backward.

“Y, you really were a spy of the Demonic Cult?”

“Why? Weren’t you the one who was certain I was a spy of the Demonic Cult? Wasn’t that why you searched the merchant company?”

At Muk Hui-yeong’s mocking tone, Yi Hwan had no answer. No matter what else, Yi Hwan had never truly believed Muk Hui-yeong was a demonic practitioner. The Eastern Depot had investigated Muk Hui-yeong thoroughly. Who would suspect that a lay disciple of Wudang was really with the Demonic Cult? It had only been an accusation pasted on in order to find a pretext to shut down the merchant company.

“But I’m not a spy of the Demonic Cult. Due to certain circumstances, I merely carry demonic qi in my body.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“Even while saying it, I know it sounds absurd. But if that’s the truth, what can I do?”

Muk Hui-yeong smiled brightly. He seemed satisfied by how shocked Yi Hwan was.

In truth, Yi Hwan was almost on the verge of fainting. Even after its destruction long ago, the Demonic Cult still remained an object of fear to people.

The thought of overwhelming and killing Muk Hui-yeong had vanished long ago. Back when he had drawn his blade in Radiant Crystal Merchant Company and held it to Muk Hui-yeong’s neck, he had been certain Muk Hui-yeong was his inferior. According to the information he’d confirmed, Muk Hui-yeong had only joined Wudang as a lay disciple a short while ago.

But if Muk Hui-yeong was a demonic practitioner, then all of that had been false. Convinced that Muk Hui-yeong was a demonic practitioner, or more precisely a spy of the Demonic Cult, Yi Hwan was now doing nothing but searching for a chance to flee.

“Just a moment ago you barged in without permission, and now you’re already thinking about running away.”

Muk Hui-yeong immediately saw through him. Yi Hwan flinched when the point struck home.

“Don’t think about running. You’ll die before you can get out of this building anyway. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t it be better to put up a proper fight first?”

For a moment Yi Hwan wondered if some sinister art of the Demonic Cult had read his mind, but in truth he was simply so shaken that everything was showing on his face.

“Y, you think you’ll be safe after killing a man of the Eastern Depot?”

“I heard some useful information recently.”

Muk Hui-yeong’s eyes curved.

“They say the Eastern Depot is the kind of place where the person who kills disappears, and the person who dies disappears too.”

Before Muk Hui-yeong had even finished speaking, Yi Hwan flung every throwing blade and concealed weapon from his sleeves. Countless pieces of steel flew between Muk Hui-yeong and Yi Hwan. There were so many that one had to wonder where he had been hiding them all this time.

Yi Hwan immediately leapt far backward, smashed through the door, and burst outside.

‘I made it.’

As he ran into the courtyard, Yi Hwan thought that all he had to do was clear that low wall. Beyond the wall lay a busy street. There would be no people there at this hour of the night, but it wasn’t as though Muk Hui-yeong could go roaming around while leaking demonic qi in streams. If he had any sense as a spy of the Demonic Cult, then instead of chasing after him he would surely be thinking of how to hide himself away. At least, that was what Yi Hwan thought.

But Muk Hui-yeong was faster than Yi Hwan had expected. He was already directly beneath Yi Hwan as Yi Hwan leapt high toward the wall.

“I told you, you’re not getting out.”

Muk Hui-yeong seized Yi Hwan by the collar and slammed him down into the ground.

The back of his head struck first, and Yi Hwan’s senses went dim. The strength and speed were monstrous. A sense of helplessness flooded over him. This monster was overpowering him using nothing but his born strength and speed, without even employing a martial technique.

“Ghk, ugh…”

Yi Hwan couldn’t even manage a proper scream. Only then did Muk Hui-yeong draw the sword at his waist and press it to Yi Hwan’s throat.

The instant that cold steel touched his neck, terror overwhelmed Yi Hwan. His lower body grew warm, then cold at once. Though it was spring, the night wind was still chilly.

“P, please.”

Looking up at Muk Hui-yeong, Yi Hwan looked every bit like a beauty in desperate supplication. Yi Hwan had lived receiving no small benefit from his beautiful appearance. That had been true even when he was still a man, and it remained true after becoming a eunuch.

So at that moment Yi Hwan believed that even Muk Hui-yeong would waver at least a little. He also believed that would be his final chance.

“Hey.”

Yi Hwan flinched. There wasn’t the slightest warmth in Muk Hui-yeong’s voice. A coldness far beyond the chill of his drying urine enveloped Yi Hwan.

Standing with the moon at his back, Muk Hui-yeong’s face couldn’t be seen by Yi Hwan. As the moon slowly shifted and Muk Hui-yeong’s face was revealed little by little, Yi Hwan clung to one last hope.

The face that finally came into view was expressionless. The habitual false smile he wore as a merchant was gone, and so was any anger toward the man who had come for his life. Even the formal honorific speech had been discarded.

The moment he saw that face, Yi Hwan abandoned hope. Muk Hui-yeong wasn’t reacting in the slightest to Yi Hwan’s pitiful expression.

“The debt is repaid.”

Before Yi Hwan could answer in any way, the blade plunged straight into his pale throat. Yi Hwan’s deerlike pupils contracted faintly in pain and terror.

***

Yi Hwan’s corpse I buried deep in the earth. Merchants are surprisingly accustomed to making graves. It is an unwritten rule that when merchants die on the road, other merchants bury them. People in this profession have long been despised, so among merchants one can see a certain bond of solidarity.

With the experience from my previous life, when I had collected the bodies of countless merchants, together with the martial strength of this life, burying one person wasn’t difficult. Even so, it took a full shijin just to dig deep enough and bury him.

Even after digging for a full shijin, I wasn’t sweating or tired. The talents I had replaced were truly showing their worth.

With the silver I had left, I overhauled my martial talents. I changed Sturdy Body, which had been eighth grade, into Martial Physique of seventh grade, changed Swift Movement, which had been seventh grade, into Ghostlike Elusiveness of sixth grade, and bought Body Arts Talent (Low Grade) of sixth grade. In other words, I had corrected my weak points and replaced all the talents I possessed with higher-tier versions.

I had agonized a great deal while holding fifteen hundred nyang of silver in my hands, but in the end my choice had been the right one. Thinking back on the speed with which Yi Hwan had held a knife to my neck, I had judged that raising my physical talents by even one rank would make it worth attempting. The results had been better than expected, to the point that I had to keep moving my body around by myself to test them out.

“Hoo.”

When I lifted my head because the brightness was dazzling, the sun was already rising. Even when I shook them, the blood on my hands and the dirt clinging to it didn’t come off.

Even though I had killed a man, I didn’t feel much of anything. It wasn’t as though I had never killed in my previous life. There had been times when I encountered brigands on trading journeys and took lives. The brigands who died by my hand were often men who had only recently fallen from being farmers.

Even so, I felt no guilt. Whether it was those brigands who had once been farmers, or me, all either of us had done was our utmost to survive. The difference was only that I won and survived, while the brigands died and became food for vultures.

This fight with the Chief Director of the Eastern Depot felt the same to me. Even if you meet someone who isn’t your enemy on a single-log bridge suspended between thousand-zhang cliffs, wouldn’t you still have to throw him down if you wanted to cross yourself? We had merely met under such a pitiful fate.

“May your manhood be restored in heaven.”

I gave my own sort of condolence and stamped down the disturbed earth.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth, as though I had met the former self of old, the one who was all edge. After becoming the Company Lord of a Great House merchant company in my previous life, I had gained a measure of leisure. In this life, I had spent my time associating with Daoists and senior brothers who were hardly like senior brothers at all, to the point that I had almost forgotten this other version of myself.

I had thought he vanished long ago, but this sharp merchant had only hidden himself deep beneath my consciousness and waited for a chance to emerge. The saying that a person doesn’t change even after death was true after all. In all the Central Plains, I was likely the only one capable of proving that saying.

I washed the blood off with water and changed clothes. The fact that only a few shichen earlier I had been fighting for my life felt almost like a dream.

As I blankly stared up at the sky, I shook my head. It was still too early for thoughts like that. The fight wasn’t over yet.

There was still one final person left to deal with. I left the warehouse courtyard and headed for the Provincial Administration Commission.