Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 85 - Formal Match (2)

Chapter 85 – Formal Match (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Myeong-il was a proper child. Ever since being taken into the Wudang Sect as a child, he had never once disobeyed the orders of his master or his martial uncles.

Usually, children first taken in would cry under Wudang’s harsh training or try to run away, but Myeong-il had done neither.

Also, rather than moving thoughtlessly under the orders of his elders, Myeong-il always tried to understand them with his heart. That was why, though still young in age, the convictions the Wudang Sect had taught him and his trust in his elders did not fall behind even those of the first-generation disciples.

“…Have you ever seen Myeong-il like that?”

“No.”

Myeong-il’s anger was so unusual that even the third-generation disciples whispered among themselves.

At that moment, Myeong-il was expressing his anger even while disobeying the Sect Leader’s order. But all the disciples understood.

The Sect Leader was the face of the sect. A green, young brat about their own age had spat on the face of the sect, so there was no way they could remain still. If Myeong-il had not acted first, all of them would have drawn their swords.

“Draw your sword.”

“I was going to anyway.”

Even against the pressure being collectively released by Wudang’s third-generation disciples, the Zhuge Clan child did not shrink back and only sneered.

Myeong-il felt something strange. Among the members of famous families he had met now and then, there had never been anyone whose speech and behavior were so rough and ill-bred.

No matter how bad relations between the Zhuge Clan and Wudang were, a famous family was still a famous family. The Zhuge Clan child even spat on the ground as he drew his sword.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”

The Zhuge Clan child kicked his sword with his foot. Even while feeling the incongruity, Myeong-il did as he had been taught by his senior brothers and martial uncles.

“I was taught to yield three moves to inferiors. Come first.”

“That’s idiotic. Fine. Have it your way.”

Without even taking a ready stance, the Zhuge Clan child kicked off the ground at once.

As Myeong-il received the Zhuge Clan child’s sword, he widened his eyes.

‘Strong.’

It was certainly the same sword art as that fellow he had crossed with at the Zhuge Clan last time. The difference was that this one was much rougher and stronger.

When he saw it last time, he had thought it pitiful compared to Wudang’s sword art, but with a different user, the pressure was entirely different.

If he was this strong, then why had he not come out last time. Myeong-il could not understand it.

“Where are you looking!”

The Zhuge Clan child even noticed at once that Myeong-il’s thoughts had wandered for a brief moment. That meant he had a broad and sharp field of vision, and leisure besides.

“Hup!”

Myeong-il immediately unfolded the Five Elements Sword and advanced defensively. The Zhuge Clan child’s sword art was sharper than expected, so it seemed he first needed to observe it.

It was a natural decision for Myeong-il, but the third-generation disciples could not help but be surprised just by seeing that.

Myeong-il had shown an overwhelmingly dominant figure among the third-generation disciples. In the first place, the third-generation disciples had hardly ever seen Myeong-il use defensive forms during a spar. Even if he was yielding three moves to the Zhuge Clan child, it was different from the Myeong-il who normally answered with aggressive forms.

“Seeing trash like you represent the third-generation disciples, Wudang’s future looks pitch dark!”

The sword flew in from five directions. Retreating step by step, Myeong-il was calculating the forms of the Zhuge Clan child.

He wanted to counterattack immediately, but after saying he would yield three moves, to reverse his words now would be the height of shame.

Once the Zhuge Clan child’s three moves had passed, Myeong-il immediately shifted to the offensive.

To be safe, he ought to have observed longer, but he was not engaged in a mere spar now. Though they were only children, to the senior and junior brothers of his own generation watching, and to the people of the Zhuge Clan, he himself was Wudang.

“Do not look down on the Wudang Sect!”

With that shout, Myeong-il unfolded the Seven Stars Sword. Among Wudang’s sword arts, which overall leaned toward softness, the Seven Stars Sword belonged to the sharper side.

Myeong-il knocked aside the Zhuge Clan child’s sword diagonally and slipped in along the line farthest from the other’s blade.

Once Myeong-il switched to the offensive, the Zhuge Clan child’s expression too began to harden.

“You rat!”

The Zhuge Clan child kicked a knee up toward Myeong-il’s face. Myeong-il blocked the knee with one hand, then thrust his sword out with the other. Since there had been no time to reverse the blade that had been facing upward, the Zhuge Clan child pressed down Myeong-il’s sword with the hilt of his own weapon.

The close-range exchange continued urgently. Brawling and swordplay shifted into one another like flowing water, and the eyes of the children watching rolled rapidly. Several of the children, who had been watching with their brows knitted, finally lost track of the movements and had to shut their eyes and rub them.

The spar’s flow turned out to be surprisingly even. The Zhuge Clan’s children were shocked by Myeong-il, and Wudang’s disciples were shocked by the Zhuge Clan child. That meant both sides had held just that much confidence and trust in their own representative.

‘So they didn’t pick a fight for no reason.’

As the representative of the third-generation disciples, Myeong-il had crossed with many younger-generation experts from other famous families.

At this level, the boy would not fall behind the most outstanding rising stars from the other famous families. It even made it seem as though the child from the Zhuge Clan he had fought before had just been one they had picked up from somewhere.

As the spar gradually lengthened and the moves they had traded passed fifty, Myeong-il grew anxious. The responsibility of subduing his opponent quickly and upholding the face of the Wudang Sect rested on him now. Representing the sect he loved carried a heavier pressure than he had expected.

And it seemed that the Zhuge Clan child felt the same. Both of them shifted into the most defensive forms possible and began searching for the best possible moment to rip out the other’s throat.

By an animal sense of judgment, Myeong-il deliberately opened a gap at his waist. At once the Zhuge Clan child’s eyes flashed, and he bent his sword path to slash at Myeong-il’s waist as though he would cleave him in two.

Myeong-il felt by instinct his fluttering robe hem pressed by the blade and the skin at his waist parting with a sensation of heat. That split-second sensation, something only a martial artist could feel, became the signal that told Myeong-il he had to twist his body.

Until then Myeong-il had moved swiftly, but now his motion drew a soft curve like a leaf floating on a current. His body moved in the same direction the Zhuge Clan child’s sword was moving. The Zhuge Clan child’s blade and Myeong-il’s waist were touching, but it did not cut him. That was because they were moving at the same speed.

Using the Zhuge Clan child’s sword as his axis, Myeong-il spun in reverse to slip out of the blade’s path, then swung his own sword like lightning.

‘Wait.’

At that moment, a chill ran down Myeong-il’s spine like cold water had been poured over it.

The part his anger had kept him from thinking about. The two of them were using real swords they had been carrying, not wooden practice swords for sparring.

Myeong-il’s sword was tracing a path toward the Zhuge Clan child’s neck. If Myeong-il’s sword were not blocked midway, the Zhuge Clan child’s head would surely go flying. That would become a disastrous incident in truth.

Myeong-il gritted his teeth and tried to stop his sword, but the acceleration already attached to it did not allow him to stop. The instant Myeong-il felt his blade touch the Zhuge Clan child’s neck, he squeezed his eyes shut.

“What do you think you’re doing right now!”

With someone’s roar, Myeong-il flew high into the air. Looking down from the sky, he saw the Zhuge Clan child with his head buried in the ground.

The one who had sent Myeong-il flying and planted the Zhuge Clan child into the earth was the martial uncle he respected, Immortal Cheong-hwa.

To force the two apart in a hurry, he had sent one flying while driving the other down into the ground.

“Huff, huff.”

After safely catching and setting down Myeong-il, who had been launched high into the air, Cheong-hwa drew rough breaths. Seeing the spar turn dangerous from afar, he had used all his qi to display lightness skill.

“…Whew.”

Cheong-hwa was not the only one letting out a breath that felt close to stopping. The onlookers had felt the danger as well and had unknowingly held their breath. The ones watching simply lacked the speed of judgment and the skill to intervene in the suddenly dangerous spar, and so all they could do was stop breathing.

The Zhuge Clan child sprang up at once and touched his own neck with his hand. A tiny smear of blood stained his fingers. Proof that the blade had touched his neck even if only slightly. He too could not help imagining his neck being cut through.

“Are you all right?”

Still breathing hard, Cheong-hwa asked the Zhuge Clan child. The child blankly nodded.

“You brat!”

Cheong-hwa strode up to the still-dazed Myeong-il and slapped him across the face. Myeong-il’s small body tumbled and dust billowed up.

Myeong-il did not even have the leisure to touch his swelling cheek. He still could not fully grasp what he had just done.

Only after a little time passed did Myeong-il’s face turn pale. He immediately prostrated himself before Cheong-hwa.

“I am sorry!”

“Do you think this can be settled with ‘I am sorry’! Do you even understand what you just did!”

The reprimand of the Cheong-hwa whom he revered stung enough to bring tears to his eyes. More than Cheong-hwa’s scolding, what shocked Myeong-il was himself. The reason tears gathered in his eyes was because he was gradually realizing just how grave a mistake he had made.

“What has happened!”

The adults of the Zhuge Clan came running down from the Three Purities Hall only then.

Being martial artists themselves, the Zhuge Clan people immediately grasped what had happened just from seeing the scene.

“What is the meaning of this!”

Zhuge Chan, the master of the external business division, turned pale and rounded on Cheong-hwa.

Ordinarily the relationship between the two had been amicable, but this was an incident too serious to smooth over with that relationship alone.

“I-I’m sorry. It seems our disciple lost himself in the heat of the moment and made a mistake.”

Cheong-hwa bowed deeply. The Wudang elders, including Cheong-ui who had come running down belatedly, also realized what had happened and their expressions twisted.

Of course, it had been the Zhuge Clan child who first used a killing move. If the Zhuge Clan child had cut through Myeong-il’s waist, then it would have been the Zhuge Clan who ought to have bowed their heads. But that was only a what-if. In the end, only the fact remained that Myeong-il had almost killed the Zhuge Clan child.

“That is enough. They are children in the end, and still martial artists lacking in experience. This is a kind of accident that can happen well enough during sparring.”

Unexpectedly, the one who said that was Zhuge Gyeom, the Clan Head of the Zhuge Clan.

“…Pardon?”

Zhuge Chan and all the other elders of the Zhuge Clan looked at Zhuge Gyeom with astonished eyes.

No matter who looked, this had been Wudang’s fault, and strictly speaking it was a chance for the Zhuge Clan to hold Wudang to account. Yet with that single sentence, Zhuge Gyeom let it pass.

“Will that truly be enough, Clan Head? This was plainly our disciple’s fault.”

Cheong-ui stepped forward. Myeong-il had lowered his head deeply and his small shoulders were trembling. It was pitiable, but this was no time to protect him. Rather, the situation was so grave that a public punishment on the spot would not even be excessive.

“I said it is enough. Martial artists need experiences that skirt life and death. Since he lived through the very threshold of death, what a precious experience this is.”

“…We will give Myeong-il a fitting punishment on our side.”

“There is no need, but if that is what will ease your mind, then do so.”

Astonishingly, Zhuge Gyeom even smiled in this situation, took the child by the hand, and left.

The Zhuge Clan elders also watched his face, then followed him.

Wudang’s people stared blankly at the retreating backs of the Zhuge Clan.

At that moment, a burst of force suddenly erupted from the rear yard behind the Hall of Exhausting the Way, and a fierce wind blew out.

The sound of branches and leaves shaking poured over the stunned people of Wudang.

Even before it had properly begun, this formal match was already anything but ordinary.