Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 88 - Formal Match (5)

Chapter 88 – Formal Match (5)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Mid-sentence, I swept my gaze over the training ground. It was a true crossing of joy and sorrow. Wudang could not even lift its head, as if the whole sect had been doused in cold water, while the Zhuge Clan was hopping about as if hot embers had been strewn under their feet.

“…I am sorry.”

“Don’t say you’re sorry. It’s strategy. Strategy.”

Myeong-yeop laughed as he patted the shoulder of the dispirited Myeong-hwa.

Unlike the disciples and elders watching, who were anxious, we who were actually going out to spar were stable enough to crack jokes.

Of course, that meant their minds were strong to that extent, but the words I had spoken before the spar likely played a part as well.

‘We will almost certainly lose the first spar.’

That had been my prediction. The other disciples, Myeong-yeop included, had cried out asking why I was pouring cold water over things from the very start, but it was a rational guess.

The Zhuge Clan’s purpose would be to use us as a stepping stone to display its own transformation. That meant it was the Zhuge Clan, not Wudang, that had placed more expectations on this formal match.

Wudang would naturally think it would beat the Zhuge Clan and so would respond somewhat carelessly, while the Zhuge Clan would have come having devised a strategy for certain victory.

Naturally, in a short match like this, momentum was important. That was why I thought the Zhuge Clan would have no choice but to stake everything on the first spar. All the more so in a match that ended the instant one side reached five wins first. Surely they would think that winning first was important above all.

“The winner of the first spar is Young Master Zhuge Gyeong.”

And my judgment had been correct. Myeong-hwa too belonged among the stronger ones on our side, yet he had lost.

Unlike Myeong-hwa, who returned with the strength gone from his shoulders, Zhuge Gyeong returned in triumphant procession, raising both hands to the sky.

“Once the training ground has been reset, the second spar will proceed.”

Wudang’s third-generation disciples came out. Once one spar ended, the terrain changed due to the stamping steps and the like, so leveling work was necessary.

Among the disciples leveling the ground were my senior brothers as well. Myeong-gyeong, Myeong-seong, and Myeong-jin. They, along with the other disciples, could not even look in our direction. They probably thought that if they looked at us, it would only burden us.

Myeong-yeop seemed to notice that too, and he came close beside me and whispered.

“Our junior brothers are touching, aren’t they?”

“To me, they’re senior brothers.”

“Ah, right. Well, whatever.”

Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Myeong-yeop grinned. In any case, what mattered was that our atmosphere was not bad.

After that, our side sent out another second-generation disciple, and the other side too sent out one matched to the second-generation rank.

Bang!

And after a hundred exchanges, this spar too ended with a person from the Zhuge Clan winning.

“The winner of the second spar is Young Master Zhuge Hyeon-seong…”

I nodded my head. Once we lost two in a row, even our side showed signs of tension.

“It seems Wudang’s disciples can hardly do a thing!”

An elder of the Zhuge Clan on the opposite side shouted. Wudang’s people could only flush red and blue and say nothing.

The problem was not simply the results of the spars, but their content.

The first and second were the same. Both times, Wudang’s martial artists lost after doing nothing but use defensive forms. So from the point of view of the watchers, it looked like nothing but a one-sided pounding by the martial artists of the Zhuge Clan.

Even Wudang’s leadership could not help but move at that point. In the end, Cheong-ui sent Cheong-hwa down to our side.

“…Children.”

“Ah, Martial Uncle.”

“Why are you all so intimidated?”

Cheong-hwa seemed to be choosing his words for our sake as carefully as possible.

To turn the words around, he was asking why we were getting beaten down so helplessly without even once unfolding an offensive. And we were not so young that we could not grasp that.

“Please do not worry, Martial Uncle.”

Thumping his own chest, Myeong-yeop answered. Cheong-hwa looked at us as though he did not understand.

“It is a relief that you do not seem nervous, but…”

“We are nervous. We are simply controlling it.”

“Yes. If that is the case, then there is nothing more I could ask for.”

The skin around Myeong-yeop’s eyes trembled. Yes. He too could not help but be nervous. People said that the first-generation disciples were around thirty, but to me, even thirty was still young here.

That was because, unlike others who had lived to thirty, these people had not met many people out in society and had spent only long years on Wudang Mountain.

“Master.”

“Yes.”

“Trust us. Didn’t you say it yesterday. That you would believe.”

“I did. That is true, but…”

Cheong-hwa hesitated awkwardly. Before a spar of great meaning, he could not scold us as he normally would, yet it was not as though he had nothing to say. I could see a master struggling between those two positions, and I let out a laugh.

“You can laugh now?”

“We’ll win the next one.”

I said it with certainty. I had a reason.

“The next spar is between Daoist Myeong-yeop and Young Master Zhuge Seong-wan.”

Because our strongest force was going out next.

Certainly, the Zhuge Clan’s martial arts were astonishing. They were not the martial arts of the Zhuge Clan I had witnessed before when I visited them. More precisely, the martial arts were similar, but the people had changed. Their talent and comprehension themselves were entirely different.

Even so, however, the fortress of Wudang remained high. It was not something I should say after losing two in a row, but even after the Zhuge Clan had shown such absurd attainment, Wudang had not crumbled easily.

In that sense, Wudang and the Zhuge Clan’s forces were now on equal footing. It was also the point that showed the gap that normally existed between Wudang and the Zhuge Clan. The Zhuge Clan had only become equal to Wudang after undergoing such monstrous growth.

But that still was not a reason for Wudang to lose. Wudang had to win.

“Begin.”

Myeong-yeop and the man called Zhuge Seong-wan clashed. The first and second spars had been second-generation disciples, so they had been youths around twenty fighting, but Zhuge Seong-wan and Myeong-yeop were both close to thirty.

The sheer force and speed of their martial arts were different. Every time sword struck sword, wild gusts burst out beyond the training ground.

I raised my hand like a visor and watched the spar. The other disciples did the same.

The flow of the spar developed in Myeong-yeop’s favor. Zhuge Seong-wan’s attainment too was astonishingly high, but Myeong-yeop was superior in speed, strength, and internal energy in every aspect.

Wudang’s disciples clenched their fists tight. Even to them, this looked like the first time we were about to win. It was a good chance to sweep away the dropped momentum in one stroke.

Yet Myeong-yeop did not finish Zhuge Seong-wan easily. Myeong-yeop’s sword would reach Zhuge Seong-wan’s vital points, yet he would slow it down just before striking. That was why even though Zhuge Seong-wan was being driven into a corner, quite a large number of exchanges continued.

Glancing back, I saw that Wudang’s elders looked puzzled. To anyone’s eyes, Myeong-yeop could have ended it, yet he was not ending it.

“Could it be that Myeong-yeop is very lacking in real combat experience?”

“He certainly has never killed someone with his own hands.”

“Is that why he cannot cut the vital points?”

Even such words came up among the elders. They were that anxious, and so they were speaking loudly enough for even me to hear.

In the end, only after trading a hundred exchanges did Myeong-yeop finally suppress Zhuge Seong-wan by striking his neck with the flat of the blade.

“Hoo.”

With Myeong-yeop’s sigh, the spar ended.

“The winner of the third spar is Daoist Myeong-yeop.”

Even so, a win was a win, and so Wudang’s disciples let out cheers. Despite winning, Myeong-yeop’s face had aged about three years. Trading that many exchanges had worn him out.

“That was enough, right?”

Myeong-yeop murmured quietly. That probably would not have reached the other disciples or the elders. Smiling, I nodded my head.

“More than enough.”

***

“The Zhuge Clan really did come having sharpened their blades.”

“So it seems.”

Hiding his anxiety, Cheong-ui answered. At a time like this, the Sect Leader could not waver. The Sect Leader was the root of the sect. If the root shook, how could the tender branches endure the wind.

“The content of the spars is not very good.”

At Cheong-hwa’s words, Cheong-ui too nodded.

What worried the elders was the content of the spars. When the Zhuge Clan won, they won while continuing their offense. When Wudang won, it looked like a narrow victory snatched by the skin of the teeth.

To be honest, the elders could not understand it. In several of the spars, Wudang’s disciples could have ended things within ten exchanges. Yet they dragged them out to at least a hundred.

The elders thought thus. Since peace had continued so long, the disciples lacked enough real combat experience.

This was a phenomenon that often appeared among the younger generation of the orthodox path. When truly fighting others with real swords, their blades hesitated. To kill a person was, for a martial artist, something like crossing a wall.

Some wandering martial artist once said that the experience of having killed someone was worth half a gapja of internal energy. That meant that even if two people possessed the same amount of internal energy, the difference between one who had killed and one who had not was as great as half a gapja.

“Have we raised the disciples too softly?”

Of course, Wudang too had given them a great deal of education regarding that. That in life-and-death duels or important spars, one’s sword must not hesitate. Especially between masters, victory and defeat were decided in an instant.

But there were things that teaching alone could not solve. What use was there in teaching over and over that one must stab and cut a person’s vital points? For the hand to actually move was a completely different matter.

“If this spar ends, we too will have to clean up some black path and Green Forest people.”

“Very good.”

Cheong-ui said that seriously. No matter how the result of the formal match turned out, the Sect Leader had to look to the woods further ahead.

If the disciples could not finish things when they should, that too would become a problem later.

Even as the elders spoke, the spars continued. The flow of them was similar. When Wudang won, it was by a narrow margin. When Wudang lost, it was one-sided.

“But doesn’t something feel strange?”

At that moment, Cheong-su, who had been watching from the side, spoke up.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you not see? Myeong-yeop did it too. During the spars, they keep dragging the fight toward our side. So that we can see better.”

Right now the training ground was a large rectangle. With the training ground as the 기준, Wudang was to the east and the Zhuge Clan to the west.

Without exception, Wudang’s disciples, whether winning or losing, were pushed eastward and fought there. More exactly, they traded swords right in front of the disciples who would go out next.

To Cheong-su’s question mixed with doubt, Cheong-yu, who was seated beside the Sect Leader, replied in his place.

“And what would that mean? Since the Zhuge Clan children have strong momentum right now, are they not simply being driven that way?”

“No. The light in our children’s eyes has not died.”

Cheong-su shook his head at Cheong-yu’s rebuttal. In truth, when the elders looked closely, the eyes of the disciples, including Muk Hui-yeong, were shining. It was only the watching elders and disciples who were anxious. If Cheong-su had not said it, they would not have realized.

In that instant, Cheong-ui felt ashamed. He had been buried in his own emotions and had failed to look after the disciples. When the disciples had not given up like that, what example would it be for the elders above them to droop like this.

“Then what you wish to say, Junior Brother, is that they are doing it on purpose?”

“Do they not keep exchanging opinions among themselves, with Hui-yeong included?”

That was certainly true. While the people of the Zhuge Clan shouted cheers and massaged the shoulders of those who had finished their spars, Wudang’s disciples gathered in a circle and held serious discussions among themselves after each spar ended.

“There would be no need for that…”

Cheong-yu began to speak, then stopped. He too had realized it.

Certainly, Wudang’s martial arts were famous enough to be widely known throughout the Central Plains, but the Zhuge Clan’s martial arts had nothing widely known about them.

‘If that is so…’

Cheong-ui sprang to his feet. The eighth spar. Wudang’s second-generation disciple had won, and the score was now tied.

“So in the end it has come to this.”

Cheong-hwa murmured. Muk Hui-yeong, his sword clattering at his waist, slowly walked onto the training ground.

The final spar of the formal match was about to begin.