Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 7 - Evaluation (4)

Chapter 7 – Evaluation (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Countless thoughts flashed through my head. The Wudang sentries stood there blankly, wondering what was going on.

“You lot, return to your posts and continue standing watch. I have something to discuss with this friend.”

“Yes, sir!”

The Wudang sentries clearly wanted to know who I really was, but they did not dare ask and withdrew with disciplined steps.

The wind blew hard. Within the wavering flame, the light in Cheong-hwa’s eyes seemed to sway with it.

“Seeing that the tongue you liked wagging so much has now stiffened up, I suppose I did not misread you after all.”

“How did you know?”

I asked directly. There are people one can get away with denying things and blustering before, and people one cannot. Instinctively, Cheong-hwa belonged to the latter.

“How did I know? You really do make light of a martial artist’s eyes. Your face is full of the five desires and the seven emotions. Even I was almost fooled at first by how well you hid your expression, but the muscles that move unconsciously do not lie.”

Cheong-hwa smiled as he continued.

“Besides, if you had truly wished to remain in Wudang, then rather than throwing sand in that sparring match, you would have chosen to stand proudly and take the beating. That is the sort of figure we want to see.”

Cheong-hwa’s words pierced me like a blade. For a merchant, having one’s expression read through like that was a blow to the pride.

But if, as Cheong-hwa said, he could read the five desires and the seven emotions from unconscious muscles, then how could I possibly deceive him? There was a reason people said not to lie before a master.

“…What are you going to do with me?”

“Before that, I want to hear this. Why were you trying to leave Wudang? Across the entire Central Plains, there are people who want to enter this sect even as lay disciples in numbers like swarms of ants.”

I hesitated. Should I tell him the truth? But on reflection, there was no point in lying. He would see through it anyway. The only path left was honesty.

“Because I have a body that can never become a Wudang lay disciple.”

“Why?”

“As far as I know, to become a Wudang lay disciple, one must defeat a third-generation disciple at the end. Otherwise, everything returns to nothing. I cannot pass that test.”

“To think you believe you’ll lose to a mere third-generation disciple. You truly don’t know yourself.”

Cheong-hwa gave a hollow laugh.

“I know myself very well. I am someone with roots too meager ever to bloom. If I cannot blossom, then it is wiser to scatter the seed and start anew in another field.”

“Have you ever learned martial arts before?”

“No. The Three Calamities Fist and Three Calamities Heart Method I learned here are the first.”

“Then how can you be so certain without even trying?”

Because I knew the future. I was the man whose martial arts teacher once told him that, if I worked at it for about fifty years, I might perhaps become second-rate. That was how dull I was when it came to martial arts.

Of course, buying talents would change things, but there was no way for me to explain that. So I only gave a vague answer.

“Because I’m no good. I’m a coward too. I don’t have what it takes to become a Wudang lay disciple.”

“You’re lying again.”

Ah, you damned high-performance lie detector. So I could not even muddle through with something vague?

Of course, I did not actually think I was no good. If I had truly been no good, I could never have become a Great Merchant in my previous life. I took pride in my life.

“Speak honestly. What I hear tonight, I will not repeat to anyone.”

“Honestly?”

“That’s right.”

“Wudang is too small a vessel to contain a person like me.”

I did not know. I just decided to say it plainly.

That was my true feeling. Just as martial artists looked down on merchants, I looked down on martial artists. The sight of those who could not even make brush, paper, ink, or inkstone themselves swaggering around just because they could wield a sword disgusted me.

I was someone destined to become a Great Merchant who would grasp the Central Plains in the palm of his hand. I had no time to waste in Wudang.

Cheong-hwa lowered his head. Hidden by the darkness, I could not see his expression.

Crunch.

At that moment I heard the sound of teeth grinding. A chill shot through me. Had I crossed the line? Then again, it was not something you should say in front of a man from Wudang.

Crack, crack…

Something kept colliding and moving behind his closed lips. Was he really about to cut my throat here? While my body stiffened in tension, Cheong-hwa threw back the head he had lowered.

“Kahahaha!”

Unexpectedly, Cheong-hwa burst into loud laughter. The grinding sound had only been the sound of him trying not to laugh.

That laughter was so hearty I worried it might wake the people sleeping nearby.

After laughing for a long while, Cheong-hwa wiped at the corner of his eyes.

“I understand very well what you mean.”

…Really? No matter how much of a master he was, could he truly know what lay inside my heart? But hearing him say that stirred a little hope in me.

“Then you’re letting me go?”

“No?”

A crescent smile formed in Cheong-hwa’s eyes.

“As a man of Wudang, I cannot simply sit still after hearing that. I will show you the true body of Wudang.”

“What?”

“Watch closely.”

The moment he said that, the torch went out. The torch that had been blazing a moment earlier was suddenly extinguished. Cheong-hwa had clearly used some sort of trick.

But what was I supposed to watch? Martial artist or not, I could see nothing in the dark.

Then, soon enough, there was something to see. From the darkness, a blue aura began to stretch outward like a mirage. The blue haze wrapped itself into the shape of a single form. It was coming from Cheong-hwa’s body itself. He was projecting inner qi outward.

In my previous life I had met many martial artists and seen countless people give off qi. But I had never once seen a color as clear and pure as that.

Cheong-hwa’s blue aura looked as though even this dense darkness could not swallow it. If anything, that blue aura was pressing the darkness back as it spread farther and farther.

The mirage shaped like a sword began to move slowly. It was like water.

At one moment it flowed softly like a river. At another it surged like water rushing through a gorge. At still another it was endless and unbroken like the middle of the sea.

I stared blankly at the blue mirage embroidering patterns into the dark. My chest felt tight, and somewhere within my body an unknown force gathered into a hot knot and flared to life. It felt as though the universe itself had been spread out before me.

More. I wanted to see more. With the sensation of being drawn into that universe, I focused with all I had. But then the mirage was cut off abruptly. In the darkness, I could only taste an intense regret.

“This is the sword of Wudang. The Taiji Wisdom Sword.”

Soon a bright flame sprang up in the darkness. It was not a torch. It burned atop Cheong-hwa’s palm like ghost fire.

I had heard that once martial artists reached a certain realm, they could perform a feat called Samadhi True Flame. It seemed to be that. It was my first time seeing it in person.

‘…But what exactly am I supposed to do with this?’

That thought suddenly came to me. Why had he shown me a demonstration of the Taiji Wisdom Sword?

“You spoke of the vessel of Wudang, so I showed you the depth of Wudang. I tell you this plainly. There is no one we cannot contain.”

Ah. So that was what had pricked his pride. Only then did I understand the whole situation.

But I shook my head. Who was I to evaluate Wudang’s martial arts? When it came to martial arts, Cheong-hwa was correct. He simply did not understand what I meant.

“When I say you cannot contain me, I don’t mean because I am too large. I mean because my shape is different.”

“A different shape?”

“How can a fox eat food from a bottle, and how can a white crane drink water from a bowl? It is the same principle.”

“Heh heh. You certainly know how to use words. According to my Cheong-hyeon, you were the son of an ignorant peasant.”

Cheong-hwa laughed.

“But I cannot agree with you. Wudang’s foundation is the warm floor of all things beneath heaven. Before the fox, it becomes a shallow bowl. Before the crane, it becomes a deep well. And the mouth of the bottle we possess is like water itself, beneficial to all.”

As expected of a Daoist, he was exceptionally good at saying cloudy things that floated in the air. Once he had gone this far, there was little I could do.

“Then I misspoke. My apologies. But I still cannot remain in Wudang.”

“Why?”

“Just because.”

I smiled inwardly. If I became this stubborn, not even Cheong-hwa would be able to refute it. If I simply said I disliked it, what possible reason could there be? At this point, he had no choice but to let me go.

“I see.”

Cheong-hwa stroked his chin with a grave expression. It seemed he had finally run into a wall. He probably had not expected me to be this shameless.

But what came out of Cheong-hwa’s mouth next was far beyond anything I had imagined.

“There is a saying about a child on the verge of falling into a well. How could one stand by and merely watch? And if that child is one who could become great, then one must stop him at all costs. That is the very meaning of an elder’s existence.”

“What?”

I too had once been an elder nearing fifty, you brat. Because of his martial arts, Cheong-hwa looked to be barely thirty at most. He was far too young to lecture me about age.

“You will not leave Wudang. Not unless I give the order.”

It was like a bolt of lightning crashing down behind me.

“…National law says kidnapping is a crime.”

“Heh heh. Kidnapping? Have you ever heard of a kidnapping approved by the father? Perhaps you’ve forgotten, but the one who sent you to Wudang was not us. It was your father.”

“Why are you trying to keep me so badly? Why does the grand Wudang Sect want to hold on to the son of some insignificant peasant like me?”

I spat the words out as if coughing up blood. My throat was so tight with emotion that I could actually taste blood. Even I thought there could not be a more reasonable question than that.

Cheong-hwa smiled with his eyes half closed. There was even a trace of mysterious profundity in that smile.

But the answer that came was very far from profound.

“Just because.”

***

Cheong-hwa glanced behind him and smiled. It was a truly strange expression. Surely there could not be another child in the whole Central Plains who wore the face of someone being dragged to the slaughterhouse while entering Wudang.

It was not that the boy was embarrassed and trying to hide his face. Muk Hui-yeong had in fact already tried to run several times, only to be caught by the scruff of the neck by Cheong-hwa.

‘An absurd little fellow.’

To say Wudang was too small a vessel to contain him. What arrogance. Had the sect leader heard those words, he would have clutched the back of his neck and collapsed.

Yet in Cheong-hwa’s eyes, Muk Hui-yeong had every right to think that way. The boy himself knew it too. That he was an astonishing genius.

Cheong-hyeon had said that while teaching the mnemonic verses of the Three Calamities Heart Method, Muk Hui-yeong had closed his eyes without the slightest hesitation. Viewed one way, that was a challenge. A challenge asking how they dared teach something as paltry as the Three Calamities Heart Method to someone as gifted as he was.

‘If Wudang were to raise that genius…’

Naturally, the number of masters a sect raises is the very measure of its strength.

That is why the Nine Great Sects always scour the Central Plains with burning eyes in search of martial bones with talent.

And when a genius rolled up before their door of his own accord, how could they possibly stand by and let him leave?

‘Senior Brother Sect Leader will be pleased.’

Thinking this to himself, Cheong-hwa smiled brightly. They were sharing the same bed and dreaming different dreams.