Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 95 - Opening (3)

Chapter 95 – Opening (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I was about to call out to Myeong-il, but then held my silence. Even though I could not feel the qi wave that normally burst out from enlightenment, this faint vibration was unmistakably enlightenment.

It seemed the formation had blocked the escape of the qi wave. Since this was a place for secluded cultivation, it would only interfere with people if they could even sense the energy of others.

I stayed still. Of course, even if I moved a little or spoke to him, it probably would not affect Myeong-il in his state of selflessness. Even so, that did not mean there was no such thing as the slightest possibility.

Just as Myeong-il had said, being in this darkness made it impossible to tell how time was passing.

“Puhah.”

How much time had passed? The sound of a deep exhalation faintly came over the wall.

“Muk Hui-yeong.”

Myeong-il called for me at once. Only then did I part my tightly sealed lips.

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“Congratulations.”

“It’s all thanks to you.”

Even while saying something that embarrassing, there was no change in Myeong-il’s voice. He really was a child who felt unlike a child in every sense.

In any case, Myeong-il’s enlightenment had also produced a result for me. At the very least, it confirmed that qi did not leak outside here in the Cave of Repentance.

If that was the case, then I should be able to consume the miraculous medicine in my hand as well. When Myeong-il fell silent, I assumed he was settling the aftereffects of his enlightenment and prepared to take the medicine. But just before I put it in my mouth, his voice came again.

“It’s my first time.”

“Why are you saying something that sounds so meaningful?”

“Receiving enlightenment from another disciple.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve never really been taught anything even by my Senior Brothers.”

“I see.”

“From now on, can you teach me too?”

Myeong-il’s question was unexpected. He was a child who normally maintained complete indifference toward others. For such a Myeong-il to approach me first like this was something new. And I had no reason to refuse.

“Of course.”

Even as I answered that, I thought it was not much of a big deal. It was only natural for fellow disciples to complement each other and help guide one another.

But it seemed to have a somewhat different meaning for Myeong-il.

“Then you’re my master now.”

“Pardon? No, that’s not right.”

“It is. You gave me guidance.”

Myeong-il’s voice was firmer than I had expected. It was the first time I had seen him assert himself this strongly.

“We’re just exchanging things between us.”

“I have nothing to give you. In every way, you’ve already surpassed me.”

“Then at least speak more respectfully. You’ve got none of the basics of a disciple.”

“…Ah. I apologize.”

I had only thrown that out as a joke, but Myeong-il took it seriously. When someone so entirely lacking in cuteness reaches that extreme, he starts to feel cute in the opposite direction. They say extremes meet, do they not.

“I was joking.”

“I wasn’t. If you really want me to call you that, I can.”

“Forget it. It makes me uncomfortable.”

If I called Myeong-gyeong Senior Brother while hearing respectful speech from Myeong-il, the relationships would get tangled. The so-called family hierarchy would be a mess. In the end, polite or casual speech was not actually that important in human relationships.

“Then what should I do?”

“What do you mean, what should you do? Is there really anything that has to be done?”

“Yeah.”

I was about to speak, but stopped. I could simply ask him for a favor here. Tell him I needed a little quiet because I had something to sort out. But I became more curious about the child named Myeong-il.

“Why do you think that?”

“Think what?”

“Why do you think that something has to be done?”

“Because if you don’t, you’re discarded.”

His voice was flat. It was a story far too cold and cruel for a child to utter.

“Were you discarded before?”

“Wudang’s disciples have a taboo.”

“What is it?”

“Disciples do not ask each other about their pasts before entering the mountain. It’s even in the sect rules.”

Myeong-il stopped speaking and let out a sigh. The weight inside that sigh felt as though it settled onto my chest.

“But you’re not a main-sect disciple, so I guess I can tell you.”

As if making excuses, Myeong-il began speaking to himself.

“You see, I was the child of a martial family. A place called the Jeong Family Estate in Jiangxi.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard of it. Then your surname must have been Jeong.”

“Don’t ask my name. I received a Daoist title and forgot that name.”

“Ah, right.”

“Anyway, I was in charge of investment there.”

“In charge of investment?”

“I would display my martial talent and receive investment from other merchant companies or escort bureaus. I would demonstrate martial arts, and if they did not invest, then I went hungry that day.”

“Heh.”

I let out a hollow laugh. I had heard that sometimes happened when an outstanding talent appeared in a small clan. The Zhuge Clan had just recently challenged us to a formal match for a similar reason, so there was nothing more to say when it came to smaller and mid-level clans.

“But in the end, something happened. People who coveted my talent tried to kidnap me. But in the middle of it, my father discovered them and fought them. The thing is, my father had no talent at all. He had his throat cut and died right in front of me.”

Myeong-il’s voice was so calm that it sent chills up my spine. I said nothing and simply listened.

“Don’t pity me. I thought many times that I wished my father would die. To be honest, when I saw him die, I felt strangely happy. Whenever I failed to secure investment, he would drink and beat me.”

“That can happen.”

The Central Plains was a savage place. It was common to experience the death of an acquaintance by the age of five. Whether someone died because of a quarrel or met a dog’s death at the hands of bandits, in the martial world there was always, everywhere, a reason to die.

“But then something funny happened. The group trying to kidnap me wasn’t just one group. Another one showed up in the middle, and they started fighting with their lives on the line too. At least a dozen people must have died because of me.”

Myeong-il possessed one of the most outstanding talents among Wudang’s third-generation disciples. Even in Wudang, the Wudang of South Reveres Wudang, North Honors Shaolin, Myeong-il had not been able to hide his brilliance, so what would it have been like in some small martial family in Jiangxi. In that sense, it might even be called a predetermined disaster. Though of course, it was also an unavoidable one. One might choose how to die, but not how to be born.

“When that completely unexpected bloodbath broke out, my master was on his way back to Wudang and saved me. That’s how I became a third-generation disciple of Wudang.”

“You have certainly been through a lot.”

“The other children are probably the same.”

At Myeong-il’s words, I realized something. Thinking about it, Myeong-gyeong, Myeong-seong, Myeong-jin, the other disciples too, all must once have had parents. But none of them ever looked for them.

“I see.”

“That turned into a boring story.”

“No. It was good.”

Everyone had said it was the first time they had ever seen Myeong-il become so agitated. But after hearing this story, I understood.

He had insulted the Sect Leader who had saved his life. There was no way he could have endured that.

“So you don’t need comfort or anything, right?”

“Right. If you were the type to try something like that, I wouldn’t have told you any of this in the first place.”

I decided not to ask the teasing question of why he had told me then. Some stories held meaning in the act of speaking itself and the act of listening itself.

“Then I’ll teach you properly. As much as I know, at least.”

“Good.”

“Then as your master, shall I give you a single command?”

“Yeah.”

“Be quiet for a moment. I have something I need to sort out.”

“Okay.”

Myeong-il was remarkably easy to handle.

And so I secured time to consume the miraculous medicines.

I tore open the cloth I had sewn inside my robe. The Supreme Clarity Pill inside dropped into my hand. In my left hand I held the Supreme Clarity Pill, and in my right hand I held the strange pellet in which spiritual qi and demonic qi were tangled together.

“Hm.”

I pondered for a moment, then resolved to take both.

Until now I had been too busy to take them, but now the chance had finally come. If I let this chance go, I had no idea when another one would come.

I wedged both miraculous medicines together between my teeth. Then, without the slightest hesitation, I bit down.

The energies inside my mouth became so packed that it almost forced my jaw open. But I absolutely could not open my mouth. Every bit of that energy was something I had to digest myself.

My teeth began to shake, and soon I tasted blood. That was only natural. Even one miraculous medicine would have been powerful, and I had swallowed two at once.

The internal energies that had filled my mouth were soon dragged down toward the area of the dantian. Around the Qihai Acupoint, where the dantian lay, I halted the energies. And in that instant, I knew.

‘This is bad.’

Incredibly, once inside my body, the intertwined spiritual qi and demonic qi rapidly separated.

And once separated, each energy was far stronger than I had expected. It seemed likely that condensed internal energy had been mixed in with them. Was it possible to condense internal energy that far and make its presence so faint.

Right now, the internal energies near the Qihai Acupoint were in confusion because spiritual qi and demonic qi were mixed together. If I had not acquired All Streams Return to the Source, there was no telling what would have happened.

I absolutely could not allow such powerful energy to enter the dantian all at once. I had to slow the speed of their separation as much as possible and feed them into the dantian little by little.

“Ggh.”

A groan escaped me before I realized it. Pain was inevitable when I was forcibly blocking something that was supposed to flow. The internal energies stagnating inside the Qihai Acupoint churned through the inside of my body.

I trusted as much as possible in the power of the Indomitable trait. If not for Indomitable, I would likely have long since lost consciousness from the pain.

Enduring the pain, I continued to hold on until the spiritual qi and demonic qi fully separated and entered the dantian.

‘Good.’

The chaotic energy slowly separated and flowed into the dantian. Gradually, my mind and heartbeat calmed as well.

Only then did I let out my breath. It felt as though I had held it for nearly half a gak.

“Hoo.”

I still did not open my eyes, and continued observing my body.

The demonic qi was on the left, and the spiritual qi was exactly on the right. I checked one more time whether there was any internal energy left in the qi channels. When I confirmed there was none, I opened my eyes.

I drew up the demonic qi with my left hand. A purple aura welled out in a thick surge. It felt as though some viscous liquid were emerging.

With the opposite right hand, I drew up the spiritual qi. A bright blue aura drifted lightly outward like mist spilling into the air.

When the two combined, they turned into a murky gray fog. I could now use three kinds of energy. First, spiritual qi. Second, demonic qi. Third, the energy formed when the two fused together.

It hardly needed to be said that those energies were far greater in volume than what I had been able to wield before. I had consumed two top-tier miraculous medicines at the same time. That result was only natural.

“Daoist Myeong-il.”

Having finished checking my body, I called out to Myeong-il. His voice came immediately.

“Just call me Myeong-il. You’re older than I am anyway.”

“But I call everyone else Senior Brother, so that would be a little awkward.”

“When did it become like that? Then call me Senior Brother too.”

And just like that, I found myself suddenly entering a Senior Brother-Junior Brother relationship with yet another disciple of the Myeong generation. It would not be an exaggeration to say that apart from not being a main-sect disciple, I was now fully a member of Wudang. I smiled. If that was the case, then the position of lay disciple would gain even more power. I was close with the main-sect disciples, while still retaining the freedom of a lay disciple.

Even the Immortals of the Cheong generation had probably never imagined that I would blend this well with the Myeong generation. But now that even Cheong-yu had acknowledged me, it hardly mattered anymore.

“Then are you ready?”

“Ready for what?”

“Discourse on swords.”

I smiled. Now that my internal energy had increased, I too wanted to test my strength as soon as possible.