Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 97 - Huizhou's Nobles (2)

Chapter 97 – Huizhou’s Nobles (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Son. Do you know why you’re being sent to the Wudang Sect?”

Yeo Hong-yang, kneeling on one knee, raised only his head. His father was concealed behind a black gauze screen, visible only as a shape.

“It is so that Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company can exert greater influence over the martial world.”

“That answer displeases me rather greatly.”

His father’s voice immediately turned cold. Yeo Hong-yang, in contrast, grew more anxious. At that moment, the words the deputy hall master had once said to him flashed through his mind.

“Because Hubei is strategically well positioned for blocking the advance of the Shanxi merchants.”

“Better than before. Still, it’s lacking. Speak honestly.”

“Honestly?”

Yeo Hong-yang was flustered. Honestly? Could such an abstract word even be used in the commercial world? His father’s mouth had always spoken of numbers and clear evidence. It was a strange word to hear from him. But the father behind the gauze screen was not a man who understood jokes.

As Yeo Hong-yang’s answer took too long, his father gave a snort, as though he had expected as much.

“Absurd. If you cannot take out even a single thing that lies inside your own heart and show it, how do you expect to display wares to other people?”

“…That!”

Isn’t that a different matter entirely? The words circled in his throat. Of course, Yeo Hong-yang did not possess the boldness to answer that way.

“I’ll answer it for you. Among all my children, you have the least influence within the merchant company. That is why I am sending you to the Wudang Sect.”

Only then did Yeo Hong-yang understand the honesty his father had spoken of. Astonishingly, it was something that was truly his own honest feeling, and yet he himself had failed to even recognize it.

Yeo Hong-yang’s deeply rooted inferiority complex and low self-esteem had hidden that truth from him, preventing him from facing it. Which was why, even though he had long known the fact himself, he had never once thought to say it aloud.

Yeo Hong-yang clenched his fists hard. His body trembled.

“Connections with Wudang’s lay disciples? They are not particularly important to Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company. After all, among the lay disciples, there is not a single child with a background better than yours.”

His father’s cutting words continued.

“You will simply be reduced to an existence that descends the mountain safely as a Wudang lay disciple and secures only Wudang’s cooperation when conducting trade in Hubei. A pitiful thing.”

His father, Merchant King Yeo Bul-jin, possessed a tongue like a hundred flying daggers. Yeo Hong-yang could not say a word, even while listening to such humiliating language.

“Even so, this is also your final opportunity. Suggesting a new business venture to Wudang or drawing Wudang into the commercial world would both hold great significance for Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company as well. Of course, even to my eyes, the latter seems difficult. I am only giving examples.”

“…Yes.”

“I believe I’ve given you more than enough clues. Learn to feel shame. Your elder brother is cutting his way through a thornbush without even these clues.”

His eldest brother, Yeo Hong-won. Though only five years older than Yeo Hong-yang, he was handling communication duties with the Imperial Palace in Beijing. It was an important assignment even for Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company.

It carried a weight completely different from merely being placed over one hall with little influence.

“You may go.”

Yeo Hong-yang rose, bent at the waist, and turned to leave the room. At that moment, his father’s voice came again from behind him.

“Remember this. Son. There is only ever one best.”

Something obvious. That was one of his father’s habitual sayings. It was also something Yeo Hong-yang disliked. Of course the best was always one. Why speak of it as if it meant something profound?

Yeo Hong-yang lowered his head again and stepped outside. The instant he exited, his foot sank straight into darkness.

Without even having time to scream, Yeo Hong-yang tumbled and fell through the darkness.

…

And when the darkness seemed on the verge of suffocating him, Yeo Hong-yang snapped awake with a start. By then his breath was already ragged, his heart was pounding fast, and his spine and the back of his head were wet.

“Damn it.”

“Awake again?”

When he sat upright, it seemed Jeon Oh-su on the bed next to him had been woken too and asked the question. Looking out the window, it was still before dawn.

“No. Go back to sleep.”

Kicking away his blanket, Yeo Hong-yang stepped outside. Since the sun had not yet risen, the dawn wind was cold.

It had already been a year and several more months since he had entered as a lay disciple. One generation among lay disciples lasted in two-year intervals.

Which meant that before long it would be time for him to descend the mountain.

‘What have I accomplished all this time?’

While staying on as a lay disciple of Wudang, he had certainly built trust and familiarity with the other lay disciples.

Put the other way around, that was all he had done. Just as his father had said, he had not proposed a new business to Wudang, nor had he drawn Wudang into the commercial world.

No, to be precise, there had been a new business, and Wudang had indeed entered the commercial world, but the party leading that had come from a completely unexpected direction. Namely, the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company of Muk Hui-yeong, another former lay disciple.

A lay disciple who was only around the same age as himself had gone and demonstrated, exactly and directly, the very things his father had spoken of.

‘Just what kind of bastard is he?’

From the first time he saw him, he had already thought the fellow was no ordinary sort. But now he looked like someone from an entirely different world.

Almost like his own elder brother, Yeo Hong-won.

Yeo Hong-yang roughly knew the current situation too. The Radiant Crystal Merchant Company had pulled the Wudang Sect into the commercial world, and astonishingly, its first trade run was in the salt business. He had no idea what astonishing means Muk Hui-yeong had used to acquire salt certificates this time either.

What mattered to Yeo Hong-yang was that the closest salt yard lay in Huaiyin. Huaiyin’s salt yard was, in truth, the ground of the Huizhou merchants. Muk Hui-yeong would undoubtedly come to find him.

Thinking that, he had spent several days coming outside and waiting, but Muk Hui-yeong never came. At some point, Yeo Hong-yang had begun to fear it. Had the time come when he had become useless to Muk Hui-yeong?

That thought made his body tremble. It was familiar. The sensation of his whole body being filled with disappointment in himself, that was. That disappointment later remained behind as a sticky residue that clung to whatever self-esteem tried to rise.

Just as Yeo Hong-yang sank down into that pit again, someone came in from outside the Outer Court. Fortunately, it was Muk Hui-yeong. Yeo Hong-yang immediately arranged his expression.

The two of them then moved directly into their discussion.

To be honest, the one who had been desperate for this meeting was Yeo Hong-yang, more than Muk Hui-yeong. Muk Hui-yeong was an outstanding resource who had accomplished what Yeo Hong-yang had failed to do. Frankly speaking, the only connection Yeo Hong-yang could introduce to his father with confidence was Muk Hui-yeong.

In that sense, Yeo Hong-yang wanted to become more tightly connected with Muk Hui-yeong, and judged that this was the chance. That was why he had prepared a highly favorable proposal for Muk Hui-yeong too. But what came out of Muk Hui-yeong’s mouth was absurd.

“I want to invest in you.”

“I give money to you, and you cooperate with me.”

“An heir? Since when were you the heir?”

Muk Hui-yeong mercilessly stabbed right into Yeo Hong-yang’s weak points. As if he knew exactly that Yeo Hong-yang carried an inferiority complex, he struck in a way that was both cruel and deep.

In anger, Yeo Hong-yang had tried to rise and leave, but one sentence from Muk Hui-yeong stopped him.

“Yeo Hong-won. You want to beat him, don’t you.”

Learning the names of the heirs of a merchant giant like Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company was no easy matter. Because if they were kidnapped, it would become troublesome, so their identities were concealed.

Of course, since the heirs had to be active, perfect secrecy was impossible, but even within the merchant company people kept quiet, and the spread of information was monitored regularly.

And yet Muk Hui-yeong had somehow learned the name of his own eldest brother. That itself was not what shocked him. Muk Hui-yeong had more than enough ability to uncover something like that.

The real issue was how Muk Hui-yeong had seen straight through the fact that Yeo Hong-yang himself wanted to beat Yeo Hong-won. Yeo Hong-yang had never once mentioned Yeo Hong-won even to his other friends, including Jeon Oh-su, nor had he ever displayed his inferiority complex.

“Let’s hear it then. Exactly how are you going to help me beat my brother?”

Pretending to be agitated, Yeo Hong-yang sat back down, though in reality he was in a very cool-headed state. If there was one thing Yeo Hong-yang did better than his other siblings, it was acting.

And yet even he almost lost that composure at the words that came next from Muk Hui-yeong.

“Simple. You take away what Yeo Hong-won has, and you gain what Yeo Hong-won can’t take.”

“Are you playing with me?”

This time, Yeo Hong-yang’s composure truly cracked. The words were too absurdly general and too far removed from any practical substance.

“Even a lowly errand boy could say something like that.”

“You’re still lacking a bit in experience.”

“What?”

“Aren’t you curious what exactly you should take away, and what exactly you should gain?”

At Muk Hui-yeong’s words, Yeo Hong-yang went blank, as if someone had struck the back of his head with a club. Was he saying that he knew? Something Yeo Hong-yang himself had questioned for years without finding an answer to. Barely regaining his reason, Yeo Hong-yang hurriedly asked,

“What am I supposed to take away, and what am I supposed to gain?”

“As far as I know, your elder brother Yeo Hong-won is the sort of man who has more aptitude for personnel than for commerce. Isn’t he in Beijing right now too?”

Yeo Hong-yang felt a chill. The fact that Yeo Hong-won was in Beijing was a secret treated with great severity even at the level of the merchant company itself. Yet he had found that out too. It was enough to show just how excellent Muk Hui-yeong’s information network was.

Of course, Muk Hui-yeong only knew because he had come from the future.

“…That doesn’t matter. So?”

“Anyway, your brother intends to consume the merchant company not with merchant talent, but with human connections. It’s not actually a bad strategy, and Merchant King Yeo would certainly look on it favorably. Once a merchant company grows to a certain size, the eye for people matters more than merchant talent.”

“That much I know too.”

Yeo Hong-yang interrupted irritably. Muk Hui-yeong continued without showing the least sign of offense.

“But you, on the whole, are good at many things. You’re a little timid, but you can act well, your speech is organized, and your eye for people isn’t bad either.”

“Th-thank you.”

The sudden praise flustered Yeo Hong-yang. But he would soon come to regret that response.

“But it’s all vague. You act well, but it’s not as if you’re going to become an opera actor. You speak coherently, but not to the point of overwhelming anyone. And even if your eye for people isn’t bad, it’s still not enough to find a hidden talent.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s a cold assessment.”

Strangely enough, even while hearing such an assessment, Yeo Hong-yang did not feel bad. That was because he himself could not help but agree with parts of Muk Hui-yeong’s evaluation. In truth, frighteningly enough, it matched exactly with the diagnosis he had formed of himself.

“Anyway, you don’t need to be the best in the entire Central Plains. Those kinds of people are born that way. You only need to become the best within Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company. To put it more specifically, you only need to become the best among Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company’s succession candidates. It’s all relative.”

“That’s true.”

“And in that sense, there is one thing in which you utterly surpass the other succession candidates of Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company. No one can catch up to you in this.”

“Really? I can’t think of anything.”

To Yeo Hong-yang, this was the first he had heard of it. Muk Hui-yeong looked at him expectantly, but when no answer came, that expression turned disappointed.

“You got to know the people of the Wudang Sect. You’re Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company’s Wudang expert. What does that mean? It means that, in effect, you’re Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company’s martial-world representative. If you can go through Wudang, what martial artist would you be unable to meet?”

“Honestly. That’s supposed to be something special? That’s just obvious. I came here as a lay disciple.”

“Then why don’t you use that obvious thing as a weapon? Did you fall out of a tree when you were a kid?”

“Listen to how you talk…”

Yeo Hong-yang stopped mid-sentence. In that instant, he saw clearly what area within Heaven’s Gift Merchant Company he needed to become the best at. Watching him, Muk Hui-yeong smiled.

“Understand now?”

“Yes.”

Yeo Hong-yang nodded with grim resolve.

“Force. That’s what I need to obtain.”

“Historically, the ones who usurped thrones were, more often than not, military strongmen. Even when they were poor at politics. That is how certain a means force is for obtaining what one wants.”

Muk Hui-yeong spoke in a serious voice. Yeo Hong-yang nodded, then stopped.

“But is it really okay for you to tell me all this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t even said I’ll cooperate. What if I just take this and run?”

“You have a brain, so you should know which would be more efficient: you talking to Wudang on your own, or you talking to Wudang with me placed in the middle.”

Yeo Hong-yang smacked his lips. There was no denying those words. Muk Hui-yeong might not have received a Daoist title, but he was already exceptionally close even with Wudang’s main-sect disciples.

“Then you’re saying I’ll provide you with information on the Huizhou merchants and various conveniences, and you’ll provide our hall with force?”

“You still don’t get it. At this rate, can you really inherit a merchant company when you’re this dense?”

“Did I say something wrong?”

“You did. Did I say I was investing in your hall?”

Yeo Hong-yang blinked.

“You said you were investing in me.”

“Right. I’m investing in you as a person. But I’m an investor, not someone steering the ship for you. Or perhaps… do you want to live as a man who needs someone else to steer for him?”

“…Ahem.”

Yeo Hong-yang felt a little embarrassed. Shamefully enough, he had almost tried to rely on Muk Hui-yeong for everything.

“Right. That part is my responsibility.”

With that in mind, Yeo Hong-yang did not ask what exactly he needed to take away from his brother. That was something Yeo Hong-yang himself needed to determine.

“Good. You finally understand.”

Muk Hui-yeong nodded.

It was the moment the two of them boarded the same ship.