Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 77 - Preparation (1)
Chapter 77 – Preparation (1)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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An oppressive presence suddenly spread out from the man’s body. Naturally, strength and tension entered my muscles. As expected, he wasn’t an ordinary person.
More frightening still was the fact that even while unleashing that much force, he didn’t seem to be going all out.
‘What would happen if I used demonic qi?’
Certainly, if I used demonic qi, I could become stronger. But I had the feeling that no trick I used would work against this man. Even though he was standing there now with both hands hanging loosely at his sides, I couldn’t even guess how to attack him. It felt as though I were facing a moving iron wall.
“You’re tense.”
“Yes.”
“I like your honesty.”
“There’s no need to indulge my pride.”
“Most martial artists live by nothing but pride.”
“I don’t call such people martial artists. I call them fools.”
“Ho ho ho.”
The middle-aged man burst into laughter.
“What is your Daoist name?”
“I don’t have one.”
“…?”
For the first time, a flicker of confusion crossed even the face of the man who had seemed so relaxed up until now.
“If you have no Daoist name, then are you a lay disciple?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“Huh. Good grief.”
Interest faded rapidly from the middle-aged man’s eyes. Apparently he had been pestering me like this because he thought I was a main-sect disciple of Wudang.
“The way you spoke of the Sword Release Grounds made me think without question that you were a main-sect disciple.”
“Are lay disciples not allowed to say things like that?”
“It’s not that they aren’t allowed. It just looks rather pitiful.”
I laughed. Right. That’s how it would look. I knew that inwardly myself.
“There are lay disciples who mistake themselves for main-sect disciples. It happens.”
“That’s not the case, though.”
“I thought perhaps I would give you a little instruction, thinking you were a main-sect disciple. But if you’re a lay disciple, then I suppose you don’t need my help particularly.”
I saw the middle-aged man move. He brushed past my shoulder in an instant and tried to head up Wudang Mountain.
I reacted immediately, twisting my waist and sweeping my sword out horizontally.
“Hm?”
A startled sound came out. Apparently the middle-aged man had assumed I wouldn’t even be able to react. A flash burst from the middle-aged man’s waist, and struck my sword. I immediately unfolded the soft Flowing Cloud Sword Art and dissolved the pain that would have traveled up into my wrist.
“…Flowing Cloud Sword Art?”
The middle-aged man looked at me as though it were absurd.
‘Why exactly am I even going this far?’
That thought suddenly crossed my mind. I was only a lay disciple. It wasn’t unreasonable for this middle-aged man to sneer at me. Even if I was registered, people only understood that difference if it was explained to them.
The Sword Release Grounds? It wasn’t any of my concern. I was one of those people who believed that traditions with no use should be broken apart. They said the Sword Release Grounds were a matter of respect for Wudang’s forebears, but if I had been Sect Leader, I would’ve either charged a toll or abolished it outright.
‘But.’
At this point, I had no choice but to admit it.
Needless to say, just as Muk Hui-yeong would no longer be Muk Hui-yeong if you took the merchant out of him,
So too, if you removed Wudang from him, he would no longer be Muk Hui-yeong either.
“Am I going senile? I could’ve sworn I heard you were a lay disciple.”
“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be senility.”
“Then why is it that you’re practicing the Flowing Cloud Sword Art, which only Wudang’s main-sect disciples can use?”
As the middle-aged man rolled his eyes while stroking his chin, a bright smile spread across his face. The disinterest in his eyes returned to interest. No, it burned even hotter than before.
“It’s you. The registered lay disciple. Muk Hui-yeong.”
“You know me?”
“Know you? Of course. How could I fail to know the celebrity standing at the center of the current Hubei conflict?”
The middle-aged man smiled. He clearly wasn’t hostile toward me. Even a moment ago, hadn’t he simply tried to walk past me?
I had blocked his way because I wondered whether he might be some sinister person, but that didn’t seem to be the case. He might simply be a martial artist who had ties with Wudang’s Cheong generation.
“Since you know my name, let me ask again. Who are you?”
“One does not casually ask an elder’s honored name.”
I was just about to retort, where in the world is there such etiquette, when it happened. In an instant, the middle-aged man’s leg lunged toward me, trying to sweep out my ankle. I immediately lifted my leg and brought the sole of my foot down toward his shin. But my attack became a useless kick that raised nothing but sand and dust.
“What is this all of a sudden!”
“Didn’t you swing your sword at me? This is merely my counterattack.”
“That only came out reflexively because you suddenly tried to pass by.”
“And if I had died to that sword, would that still be your excuse?”
“If you die, then you die. It isn’t my life.”
“Ho ho. How refreshing.”
The middle-aged man unfolded a hand blade and thrust it toward my Adam’s apple. Judging by the speed and the power loaded into his hand, if it hit, I would likely be bedridden for months at the very least.
“Damn it!”
I tried to redirect it with the Taiji Fist my senior brothers had taught me. Taiji Fist was a fist art that emphasized defense over offense, making it ideal for the present situation.
“Your fist and palm forms are more clumsy than I expected.”
The middle-aged man laughed loudly. In reality, my hands tangled up uselessly and failed to stop his at all.
I knew perfectly well that my fist and palm forms weren’t complete. Though I had bought the same low-grade talent for swordsmanship and body arts alike, the number of martial arts I had actually learned was too small. The thing I was truly confident in was the sword, especially the Flowing Cloud Sword Art I had mainly trained.
I immediately bent my waist with the technique of the Iron Bridge. The murderous hand blade grazed through the place where my throat had been. My upper body and the ground became parallel. In that position, I swung my sword in a great diagonal slash. Naturally, at the center of that diagonal line stood the middle-aged man.
“Your swordsmanship is excellent.”
It had been one of my hidden methods, but the middle-aged man blocked it by striking down on my blade with his sword hilt. The precision of it was so great that I could hardly believe it even while watching with my own eyes.
“Show me more of yourself!”
The middle-aged man shouted. And naturally, along with that shout came a flying sword.
I unfolded the Flowing Cloud Sword Art once more. It was the finest swordsmanship I could currently bring forth.
The mist that rose from my blade mingled with the scenery of Wudang Mountain, and all around us looked as though it belonged to an immortal realm.
The middle-aged man’s sword was the most profound sword art among all those I had ever faced. When it seemed to contain the principle of domination, it would suddenly contain the principle of softness. At times it was filled with nothing but feints, and at other times with nothing but true strikes. The phrase countless transformations suited it perfectly.
What was astonishing was that if all those varied principles were mixed together, it ought to have looked chaotic. Yet instead it linked together with perfect naturalness.
I frantically batted away the middle-aged man’s sword. Before I realized it, the mist of my Flowing Cloud Sword Art had grown thicker still. That meant my attainment in the Flowing Cloud Sword Art had risen.
“Huh.”
An exclamation slipped from the middle-aged man’s mouth. Even amidst the chaos, I could tell it was a sincere exclamation, one boiling up from the depths of his chest.
“What astonishing comprehension!”
When I heard those words, I understood. For some reason, this middle-aged man was giving me instruction right now.
That was why he kept changing his sword, and why he was adjusting its speed and force to suit me. In truth, if he had used his full strength, I would have been slaughtered in the blink of an eye. The fact that I had exchanged several dozen moves with him at all should have made me suspicious.
“This should be enough. The old men don’t like this sort of thing.”
Saying that, the middle-aged man hopped backward. The moment our swords separated, I felt deep regret. Every clash had been teaching me something.
Not long after, people began to register within my senses. The middle-aged man had probably sensed those people coming as well, and that was why he had stopped.
“Who is making such a disturbance upon Wudang’s ground?”
The one at the very front was Sect Leader Cheong-ui. He had likely sensed that the energies were not ordinary and had come down personally.
“Oh. It’s been a while, Immortal Cheong-ui.”
The middle-aged man greeted him with practiced ease. Cheong-ui and the Wudang elders all looked at him, and their eyes widened.
“…Alliance Leader?”
“Ha ha. Since I came without sending word, I end up experiencing something like this.”
As shocked as the others were, I was no less shocked myself. There were many people in the righteous path of the Central Plains who styled themselves the head of an organization called an alliance, but there was only one man whom Wudang’s Sect Leader would call Alliance Leader.
“The Ink Sword Hero, Su Je-heon?”
“Oh. So you knew me.”
Su Je-heon laughed heartily. I was blank with disbelief.
The man I had just faced was one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven? The moments I had just spent fighting him felt dreamlike.
“I told you repeatedly to send word before coming, and yet every time you suddenly appear like this. Are you treating me with contempt?”
“Ho ho. Surely not, Sect Leader.”
Cheong-ui showed clear displeasure, but Su Je-heon merely shrugged.
Even in my previous life, I had known the next Martial Alliance Leader by sight, but this current Martial Alliance Leader, Su Je-heon, I was seeing for the first time. The Ink Sword Hero I had imagined had been a taciturn and cold-looking man with scars on his face, but in person he was simply a handsome middle-aged uncle.
“So then. Why have you come here?”
“Surely you know roughly why.”
“I knew the Martial Alliance would send someone, but I did not expect the Alliance Leader himself to come.”
That was what Cheong-ui said. Naturally so. The Martial Alliance was the place that oversaw the white-path martial world of the entire Central Plains. Its Leader was a man so settled in place that he would not move except for the gravest matters.
“I had something I was curious about personally.”
“Curious about what?”
“Ah. It’s all right. It has been more or less resolved.”
Su Je-heon laughed lightly. Cheong-ui frowned and tilted his head, as though unable to follow what Su Je-heon meant.
“After using my body for the first time in a while, I’ve grown thirsty. Won’t you give me some tea?”
“I distinctly told you not to teach strange things to our disciples.”
“Strange things? You know as well as I do. For men at our level, the very fact of meeting is itself a fated encounter.”
Su Je-heon straightened his shoulders and thumped his chest. It was an annoying thing to say, but since it was true, there wasn’t much to say back.
“Come up. We do have to discuss the mediation proposal.”
“Very well. Ah, but may this boy attend as well?”
At the tip of Su Je-heon’s finger was me. I quietly walked to the side, yet the finger kept following me. Damn it. So he hadn’t been pointing at someone behind me after all.
“Me?”
“Yes. You.”
“The Martial Alliance Leader and Wudang’s Sect Leader are about to speak, and you want me to sit in?”
“You understood correctly.”
Su Je-heon smiled. Before I could say anything, Cheong-ui spoke.
“Since you stand at the center of this matter, it seems he wishes to hear the details from you. Hui-yeong. Would you be all right with that?”
That was effectively no different from taking Su Je-heon’s side. There was no way I could say I wouldn’t be all right with it at that point. After glancing around a few more times, I reluctantly nodded.
“Yes.”
The elders who had come down with the Sect Leader all went off to return to their various duties, and Su Je-heon, Cheong-ui, and I headed for the Sect Leader’s room in the Three Purities Hall.
“Sit.”
I went and sat beside Su Je-heon.
I had been here a few times before, but it felt like the first time I had ever been the only child sitting among such towering figures.
Since I didn’t know what purpose he had called me for, it was only natural to feel uneasy.
After seating us, Cheong-ui prepared tea. I sprang to my feet to brew it myself, but Cheong-ui waved a hand.
“Since this is the Sect Leader’s room, the Sect Leader should be the one to host. Here, you are a guest too.”
At Cheong-ui’s firm voice, I awkwardly scratched my head and sat back down.
Soon Cheong-ui poured tea for Su Je-heon and me. Only after he had poured tea into his own cup as well did Cheong-ui sit down.
“So then. It seems the Zhuge Clan has no intention of yielding.”
“That is so.”
Cheong-ui smiled bitterly. It seemed the two sides had already exchanged views through the Martial Alliance.
It was obvious enough. Wudang had probably demanded an apology from the Zhuge Clan, and the Zhuge Clan had refused. I still didn’t understand why the Zhuge Clan was pushing things so far, but for now, that wasn’t the important point.
“But just as the Sect Leader must be, I too am personally curious what the Zhuge Clan is relying on to act like this. That is why I plan to leave the Wudang Sect and visit the Zhuge Clan as well.”
“That is a question I have as well.”
For a moment, Su Je-heon’s expression grew serious. As expected, they had the same doubt I did.
“Then in the end, there is only the final method left?”
“There is.”
Su Je-heon spoke in a weighty voice.
“Prepare for a formal match.”
Cheong-ui’s face twisted deeply.