Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 80 - Preparation (4)

Chapter 80 – Preparation (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I sat leaning against a tree, drawing rough breaths. What kind of training continued for two full shichen without a single break. The first-generation disciples, whose martial level was high, were fine, but the second-generation disciples and I were almost half-dead.

“Daoist Myeong-yeop. I think you are misunderstanding something…”

“What am I misunderstanding?”

“I’m a lay disciple. Not a main-sect disciple.”

“I know. But in any case, when we do the formal match, you’re still a representative of the Wudang Sect.”

“That is true.”

“Hey, and what is this stiff ‘Daoist’ business?”

“Then what am I supposed to call you? I’m a lay disciple, so wouldn’t it be a little strange to call you Senior Brother?”

“You’re not an ordinary lay disciple. Think about it honestly. Even if you were the cause of this formal match, if the Sect Leader hadn’t cherished your talent, do you think he would’ve allowed you to go out in the formal match?”

As Myeong-yeop and I were talking, the first-generation disciples and second-generation disciples quietly came over and placed their hands on my shoulders.

“Right, right. It was awkward because there was no title set anyway, so you can just call us Senior Brother.”

“If you show good results in this formal match, everyone will acknowledge it.”

Certainly, the first-generation disciples older than me treated me naturally, but the second-generation disciples around my own age had given the impression of being uncomfortable with me.

Also, whether they were second-generation disciples or first-generation disciples, Wudang’s disciples were fairly simple and unworldly because they studied the Dao. Unlike the third-generation disciples who had only just become main-sect disciples, they did not strut around proudly because they were main-sect disciples. To the innocence of the third-generation disciples had been added the maturity proper to their age. It was not for nothing that the study of the Dao was called the cultivation of character. They were, to a certain extent, already completed as people.

“Then for now, I’ll call only the people here Senior Brother. Martial Uncle Cheong-hwa, would that be all right?”

Myeong-yeop said that to Cheong-hwa, who was sitting on a tree stump and resting. Cheong-hwa shrugged.

“You all handle it yourselves. But I don’t know whether the Sect Leader will allow it. It’s good if you become closer, but even so, this is still an issue concerning the sect’s rules.”

“Please put in a good word for us, Martial Uncle.”

“If we win this formal match, we’ll be able to bring it up in quite a good atmosphere.”

At Cheong-hwa’s words, the people of the Myeong generation all stood up at once.

“Good. Then shall we train again.”

Myeong-yeop shouted. But then someone’s stomach growled. As if that growling sound were contagious, it spread to everyone.

“Ahem. It seems everyone ate a poor dinner.”

Cheong-hwa said that awkwardly. The same growling sound was coming from Cheong-hwa’s body as well.

Myeong-yeop deliberately tried to change the suddenly awkward mood with a loud voice.

“We’re not children. Can’t we endure going a little hungry!”

“Yes, the sect’s elders are sorry.”

“What do the elders have to be sorry for. We should make the Zhuge Clan pay for this responsibility.”

Now that it had become like this, the one who felt pricked was rather me. Why, you know how it is. If they had instead pushed everything onto me and said it was my fault, then I would’ve grown defiant and rebutted every point one by one, but since no one blamed me at all, guilt came rushing in instead.

“Hmm.”

I thought of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company in Wuhan. Jo Chung-heon was probably working hard right now. Since I had made him do so many things, the budget was probably a bit lacking. That meant the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company didn’t have spare money either.

‘Even so…’

The rules of my merchant company were simple with only two.

First, do not do things that lose money.

Second, strictly obey the first rule.

I could somehow explain away the fact that I had handed the merchant company’s work to Jo Chung-heon and come to the Wudang Sect. After all, the transformation of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company was not yet complete, so it was not yet the time when I needed to work in earnest. So if it was only that I had set aside a little time and come here, then perhaps.

But what I was considering now was clearly a loss for the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company. The transformation might be delayed, or the results might come out more slapdash than expected.

‘…I.’

I blankly looked up at the sky. The stars were scattered across the night sky like grains of salt.

“Hey!”

Then someone grabbed my ear and shouted while tugging on it. Who else could it be. It was Myeong-yeop, whose temper was the fiercest here.

“Pull yourself together, punk.”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. I’m sorry.”

“Definitely, only eating fasting pills leaves you without strength. Let’s stop here for today.”

“Why are you acting like you’re doing us some favor. We did this from morning until nearly the middle of the night. It feels like it’s already second watch.”

“Originally I was planning to go until third watch, so I’m really going easy on you.”

I snorted, but the second-generation disciples truly placed their hands on their chests and let out sighs of relief.

“I never thought being unable to eat properly would feel this fortunate.”

“If it’s Senior Brother Myeong-yeop, he really would grind us that hard and more.”

So they were serious. They really were people who didn’t lie.

We dispersed like that, and before entering the Hall of Exhausting the Way, I headed to the Hall of Preserved Wholeness. That was because the Hall of Preserved Wholeness handled message tubes with the outside.

I went into the message room and lit the lamp. There was a message tube I needed to write.

– Recipient: Jo Chung-heon, acting great steward of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.

I scrawled with the brush, then clutched my head. Was this really right. That thought kept sweeping through my head.

“Muk Hui-yeong the Gold Bug. He’s done for.”

There had been a time I was called that. If the Muk Hui-yeong of that time saw me now, he would slap me across the face. He’d ask just what in the world I thought I was doing.

Yes. The very action I had never once done in my entire life.

I was planning to try this thing called a donation.

***

For the first time in a long while, glossy wagons were rolling their wheels up Wudang Mountain.

“Is there something that’s come for us?”

“Who knows.”

Sect Leader Cheong-ui and the elders were watching that sight from Heavenly Pillar Peak as well. Cheong-ui looked around at the elders, but they all seemed to be hearing of it for the first time. Even Cheong-su of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness, who handled exchanges with the outside, seemed not to know.

“I’ll go and find out what it is.”

Cheong-su, master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness, came down from Heavenly Pillar Peak and ran to the Wudang Sect’s main gate. By the time Cheong-su arrived, the wagons were just arriving as well.

“Wait, stop!”

At Cheong-su’s shout, the wagons and the laborers all stopped at once.

“What is it?”

“Pardon?”

The laborer shouted the same way while wiping sweat and setting down the wagon.

“What have you loaded onto these wagons?”

“What else would it be. What you ordered.”

“What would we order?”

The conversation between Cheong-su and the laborer was going strangely off course. At that moment, the presence of someone running up from behind could be felt.

“Hall Master! I ordered it.”

“…?”

When he turned around, the person running over was a shabby-looking man. Cheong-su narrowed his brow and looked at him. Only after the man came close did Cheong-su recognize him.

“Muk Hui-yeong, is that you?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Why do you look like that?”

Muk Hui-yeong always went around neat and tidy. But now, his clothes were torn and his whole body was caked with dirt.

“That’s a rather hurtful thing to say.”

“Ah, right. You said you were going out in the formal match.”

“Yes.”

“Then I suppose you have to train like that. But you ordered this?”

“Yes.”

Muk Hui-yeong waved his hand and called the laborers over. The laborers lifted the wagons again and brought them to the entrance.

“…Hm?”

Something brushed Cheong-su’s sharpened senses. It was the first time in a long while his nose moved.

Muk Hui-yeong went over to the laborer, received the list, and seemed to check the items.

“Mm, mm. Everything’s here. No need to check it one by one, right? I’m normally the type who checks all this, but these days I’m too tired.”

“Ah, we’re a trustworthy place. How could we pull tricks on such a big customer. If you say Jinpung Inn in Jun County, everyone knows it.”

“Does that mean you pull tricks on small customers?”

“Heh heh, that’s just a manner of speaking. What a mischievous young man.”

“I’m joking.”

“All right, then order again next time.”

The laborers unloaded sacks and jars from the wagons. Muk Hui-yeong opened the jars one by one and checked the contents.

The moment the jars were opened, a blatant smell that stimulated the tip of the nose rose up. Now Cheong-su could tell exactly what it was.

It was food. Not porridge made from grass roots and tree bark, but real, proper food.

“W-what in the world is all this?”

Cheong-su asked while swallowing the saliva gathering in his mouth.

To be honest, even when things were going well, it was hard to eat delicious food in the Wudang Sect. Though they tacitly closed their eyes when one went out into the martial world and ate meat and drank alcohol, inside the main sect they originally served only food made of greens according to the rules.

That was why such a greasy smell was so unfamiliar within the Wudang Sect.

“What else would it be. Food.”

“No, I mean, why is this…”

Cheong-su began to object, but a drop of spit fell from his mouth. Seeing that, Muk Hui-yeong gave a short laugh. After such a long time, Cheong-su’s face reddened.

Though Cheong-su had trained his mind for a long time, this time he almost felt his heart collapse. But Cheong-su steadied himself. Since Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng founded the sect, meat dishes had never appeared inside the Wudang Sect. He could not be the one to break the tradition the ancestors had preserved.

“No, no. This won’t do. How can we eat meat inside the main sect?”

“Pardon? We can’t?”

“Yes. We can’t. Surely you didn’t know?”

Muk Hui-yeong’s expression stiffened. Looking at it, it seemed he truly hadn’t known.

“No, I’d heard that when you go out into the martial world, you all eat meat sometimes.”

“That is only because people turn a blind eye to it. According to the rules, you can’t eat it. Inside the main sect, those rules have to be kept. Have you ever seen anyone eating meat and drinking alcohol inside the main sect?”

“Weren’t the elders all secretly eating it?”

“How dare you slander us!”

Slurp. Cheong-su swallowed his saliva without making a sound and then spoke in a stern voice on purpose.

At present, it wasn’t only the disciples who couldn’t eat proper food. Wudang’s elders weren’t so immoral that, while the younger disciples went hungry, they would siphon food away and eat it among themselves. Rather, they had tried to take even the grass roots and tree bark and look after the younger disciples more. That was why it was natural for the elders to be hungry too. They were merely adults of the sect, and their training was good enough that they did not show it outwardly.

“Ahem. Did you order all of this with your own money?”

“Of course. It’s a donation, a donation. Our merchant company isn’t all that comfortable right now either, but I split things up and brought them anyway.”

“That is commendable, but what can’t be done can’t be done.”

“Ah. You say something hurtful.”

Muk Hui-yeong’s expression twisted. Cheong-su felt a little sorry too. He had spent his own money to bring food like this, and now they were saying they couldn’t eat it, so of course he would feel hurt. But what could be done. Those were the rules.

Especially for a traditional sect like the Wudang Sect, the rules handed down from the old days had to be valued.

While Muk Hui-yeong was expressing his hurt with his whole body, a deep voice was heard from behind.

“What is going on.”

The eyes of Muk Hui-yeong and Cheong-su both turned toward the direction the voice had come from. There, Sect Leader Cheong-ui was walking down. The elders were coming down behind him as well. It seemed that when the dispute dragged on, they had come down after seeing it.

“…Senior Brother Sect Leader.”

“It’s food.”

Cheong-ui knew it was food without anyone even speaking. His senses were that developed. The elders too smelled the greasy scent and grasped the situation.

Once the elders understood the situation as well, they immediately began speaking over one another. The first to raise his voice was Cheong-yu, who was not on especially good terms with Muk Hui-yeong.

“You wretch, are you trying to throw Wudang’s rules into disorder!”

Even among the elders who had no particular feelings about Muk Hui-yeong, many sided with Cheong-yu in the present situation. It meant that that many people in Wudang valued the rules.

“Wait.”

At that moment, Cheong-ui raised a hand and cut off the other elders’ words.

“For now, let’s carry the food up first. It’ll all get cold.”

“…Pardon?”

At Cheong-ui’s words, everyone’s eyes opened wide. A smile formed at the corners of Muk Hui-yeong’s mouth.