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The Wudang Sect.
What more needs to be said? It was the very same Wudang Sect from the saying, 'Shaolin revered in the North, Wudang honored in the South.'
Ever since the founding patriarch, Zhang Sanfeng, established the sect on Mount Wudang in Jun County, Hubei Province, the Wudang Sect had never once strayed from the center of the Central Plains Murim.
So, it was perfectly understandable that these guys were so full of themselves.
"Take this! Tai Chi Chuan!"
"Keuk, so strong...!"
Even though I was a layman when it came to martial arts, I could tell that it wasn't Tai Chi Chuan.
After Cheonghyeon, who had swung the bamboo sword at me, suddenly left, I was blankly making a grass flute. They were easy to make using the stems of the dandelions blooming abundantly on Mount Wudang.
Dandelion stems were hollow inside, so they produced a flute sound even if you just blew into them, but I added a little bit of craftsmanship to this one.
I cut the end of the stem diagonally and made a horizontal slit. I inserted a broad leaf into the slit, and then cut it short again to make it easy to hold in the mouth. With that, a grass flute was complete.
—Ppiik.
I gave it a light blow. The pitch was slightly high.
"I should use a thinner and longer one."
Dandelion stems varied greatly in thickness and length, and the sound differed accordingly. I made grass flutes using dandelion stems that were as similar in thickness and length as possible.
When selling products, uniformity was important. That was exactly what trust was all about. Buyers had certain expectations for a product, and I met them. This trust was the foundation of commerce.
While making the grass flute, I thought to myself that there was no way the afterlife could be this realistic and brimming with life.
I had already stayed here for a few days. I had even slapped my own cheeks a few times. It was only today that I finally decided to accept the fact that I had returned to the past.
"Is it because of that thing called the Divine Demon Pill?"
I hadn't realized it when I ate the pill because the situation was too urgent, but thinking back on it, it felt like a strange power had been swirling around... I wasn't entirely sure.
"What's this?"
Just then, someone reached out from behind me. I slapped the back of their hand before they could touch the grass flute.
"Hey."
I turned around and saw a boy holding the back of his hand. Looking at him, he didn't seem particularly embarrassed. Since we were peers, informal speech was allowed. No, it was practically mandatory. I was also quite reluctant to use polite speech with kids who were much younger than my past self, so it was a relief.
"Why'd you hit me?"
"Because you touched the merchandise."
"Merchandise?"
"Yeah. Merchandise."
I placed the grass flute into a small pouch. I layered broad leaves between each one to ensure they wouldn't get damaged as much as possible.
"Aren't you going to train your martial arts?"
"Does that look like martial arts training to you?"
To my eyes, it looked like they were playing house. If disguising the Three Powers Fist from the marketplace as Tai Chi Chuan wasn't playing around, then what was it?
"There's the lay disciple evaluation meeting tonight, you know."
"Lay disciple evaluation meeting?"
Ah. There was something like that. A sparring session they made us do, claiming they wanted to gauge the talents of the newly entered lay disciples.
But who would pay attention to mere lay disciples? It was obvious that the Wudang Sect would just send a low-ranking disciple for the sake of appearances. In fact, that was how I remembered it.
"They say if you catch their eye there, they'll let you enter the mountain as a main mountain disciple."
"I know. But that won't be happening for us."
"Why?"
"What do you mean, why? Look at how old we are."
The main mountain disciples of the Wudang Sect were people who practiced the horse stance from the moment they practically took their first steps. On top of that, if they showed talent, their muscles, bones, and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians were optimized for martial arts through the Marrow Cleansing process.
"We've already eaten too much cooked food, so a lot of impure qi has built up in our bodies. Even if we train in martial arts so hard we shit blood starting now, reaching the first-rate level would be our absolute limit."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
I gave a half-hearted answer and tried to move away, but his words made me stop in my tracks.
"You're smart. To be honest, I didn't want to hang out with those idiots."
"Huh?"
I was surprised by how suddenly harsh his tone had become. Then again, if he was around twenty, he was at an age where he knew how the world worked.
"They still don't seem to understand. The meaning behind entering as lay disciples of the Wudang Sect."
"What is the meaning?"
"Why pretend you don't know? You know everything, too. This is just a place to build connections. Being able to donate to the Wudang Sect means they come from families with some money, which means they're good friends to have."
He was a guy with dark ulterior motives. But there was absolutely nothing wrong with his words. Rather, they were the exact right answer.
The reason we entered as lay disciples wasn't to learn the martial arts of the Wudang Sect, but because we needed the label of being a former Wudang Sect lay disciple.
Because later on, when opening a merchant guild, attaching the title of 'former Wudang Sect lay disciple' would be very helpful.
"You're quite a shrewd guy."
"I don't think I'm quite as bad as you, trying to sell things already."
The guy laughed. The way that laugh looked innocent and pure was funny.
"I'm Jeon Oh-soo. What's your name?"
"Mok Hwi-young."
"That's a cool name. It sounds like someone who is the absolute best in the world."
Absolute best in the world, my foot. It was a name destined to meet a sudden and tragic end while groveling before martial artists.
Anyway, Jeon Oh-soo. I racked my brain.
"By any chance, is your father's esteemed name Jeon Ho-rak?"
"Oh. You know it. That's right."
"So you're the son of the Wuhan Money Exchange."
As expected of the Wudang Sect lay disciples, it seemed many children of local dignitaries had come. Though I didn't know their faces well since I was kicked out after a month.
"What about you?"
Jeon Oh-soo's eyes sparkled brightly. However, I shrugged my shoulders.
"My father is just a farmer. I entered as a lay disciple because he steadily donated to the Wudang Sect. It's not like he gave a lot, either. We don't have the means for that."
"Ah. Is that so?"
The interest in Jeon Oh-soo's eyes faded. He must have thought I had some sort of massive backing.
"Are you disappointed?"
"A little. But it's fine. My father told me to make as many friends as possible. And he told me to build closer relationships with people who seem especially valuable. Of course, it's a bit of a shame that you have no background, but you still seem smart. I think you'd do well if I entrusted you with accounting at the money exchange later."
"I don't have the personality to work under someone. It's better to run my own business."
"Smart, as expected. If you want to succeed, you have to run your own business. If you work under someone, you live as a slave for the rest of your life."
Jeon Oh-soo giggled. In my memory, Jeon Oh-soo smoothly became the owner of the Wuhan Money Exchange and seemed to have lived a good, comfortable life. There was no harm in getting close to a guy like that.
"Anyway, why are you selling grass flutes?"
"Because I need money."
"Who would buy this? Honestly, I wouldn't buy it. I can make one, too."
"The main mountain disciples. Because they have nothing to enjoy. They don't even know how to make a single miscellaneous item like this."
Usually, if someone was a lay disciple, they would be given plenty of pocket money, but my family's situation wasn't that good.
Still, my father was quite an open-minded person. To think he came up with the idea to send me as a Wudang Sect lay disciple despite those difficult circumstances. Of course, I didn't even last a month before leaving, so I was never even acknowledged as a lay disciple.
"Then shall I be your first customer?"
"Welcome, customer. I apologize for slapping the back of your hand earlier."
Jeon Oh-soo picked up the grass flutes from the pouch one by one and blew them.
"The sound is exactly the same. You have good dexterity."
"You flatter me, customer."
"How much is it?"
"Three copper coins."
"That's cheap."
"My labor is only worth that much right now. And it didn't take much effort, either."
Jeon Oh-soo counted coins from his pocket and handed three to me. I gave Jeon Oh-soo the best-made grass flute.
"I'll blow it well. I was bored, so this worked out great. Will you fix it if it breaks?"
"Customer, do you want to get hit?"
Jeon Oh-soo let out a chuckle, as if he knew I'd say that. He went into the inner hall while blowing the grass flute.
The first time I acquired goods and sold them was when I was around twenty-eight. Until then, I did all sorts of odd jobs to gather capital. I was young back then, too. If I had no capital, I should have just sold things without it, but I wandered around excessively trying to create capital for no reason.
Anyway, I had now sold a product for the first time at the age of twenty. I had essentially advanced my timeline by a whopping eight years.
"As expected, a pine caterpillar must eat pine needles."
Selling one item put my mind at ease. As expected, a merchant's constitution didn't just disappear.
The secret principle of commerce was that money attracted money. You bought better goods with the money earned from selling goods, and sold them at a higher price. As it grew bigger and bigger like that, you became a Great Merchant.
However, I had no intention of reinvesting in goods right now. What I was going to invest in was something else.
The text I had named the 'Martial Talent Shop'. The moment I became conscious of it, it appeared before my eyes like a mirage once again.
[ Agile Movements — Grade 9 ]
[ Price : 3 Copper Coins (Beginner's Discount!) ]
I checked the others, but this was the only one with a beginner's discount. How stingy, it seemed they really were only giving it once.
This thing called the shop window was quite a guy with a talent for commerce, too. Drawing a customer in the first time was hard, but drawing them a second time was easy. That was why they held opening events as a strategy to draw people in that first time.
But how do I buy this? I want to buy it.
It was just as I had thought. The three copper coins in my hand disappeared in a flash.
The rough sensation of the coins had still been lingering on my palm, so it was truly a baffling situation.
'Did I buy it?'
I didn't know. I couldn't really feel any difference right now.
Would I know if I tried using some martial arts? I remembered that Cheonghyeon Jinin had taught us the basic Three Powers Mental Method and the Three Powers Fist.
'If you were going to send me back, you should have sent me back to when I was five.'
It was human nature to ask for the bundle after being rescued from drowning. I should have been grateful just to be given a new life, but I was getting greedy for no reason. Because if that were the case, I could have learned martial arts without begging for other people's money like this.
But just as I had told Jeon Oh-soo, I was already too old. After all, I had never learned a single martial art until I reached the age of twenty.
Right before I tried to perform martial arts on my own, a small pebble flew past me with a whoosh.
"Ack!"
That small pebble accurately struck the back of the hand of a lay disciple who was playing Tai Chi Chuan in the courtyard.
When I quickly turned around, there were kids wearing blue Taoist robes, unlike us. They showed no sign of trying to hide the fact that they had thrown the stone.
"Who are you guys?"
"We are main mountain disciples."
The kid who seemed to have thrown the stone stepped forward, sticking his chest out arrogantly.
While the lay disciples were around fifteen to twenty years old, those main mountain disciples looked like they were barely ten years old.
"Why did you throw a stone?"
"Because you insulted our Wudang!"
The main mountain disciple boy shouted furiously.
"How dare you swing your fists like that and shout that it is Tai Chi Chuan? They do not even teach Tai Chi Chuan to the likes of lay disciples."
I see. Seeing their faces flushed red as if they had been insulted, it seemed they truly thought that way.
Then again, the kids from the Nine Great Sects and One Union really did have a killer sense of belonging.
"Even so, you throw a stone?"
"Be grateful I did not break your arm."
The boy spoke arrogantly. The friend who was hit by the stone also turned red and pale with anger. He must have been furious that kids a whole head shorter than him were acting like that.
"Alright. Try breaking it."
The lay disciple who was hit by the stone rolled up his sleeves and approached the boy.
A hostile atmosphere formed. The one who rushed in first was the lay disciple. At a glance, it was a stance that showed he had never thrown a punch before.
On the other hand, the main mountain disciple boy already had his stance properly angled. I felt like I knew the outcome of this fight.
"Ack!"
In the blink of an eye, the lay disciple boy's arm was twisted behind his back and he was subdued. I couldn't even see properly how he was subdued. The lay disciples were clearly flustered, perhaps not expecting to be beaten by little kids to that extent. This was the difference between a martial artist and a non-martial artist.
"How dare a mere lay disciple attack a main mountain disciple!"
"Aaaagh!"
Come to think of it, I think the main mountain disciples picked fights with the lay disciples quite a lot.
From the perspective of the main mountain disciples, they seemed to consider it a disgrace to be associated with Wudang alongside the lay disciples. Especially at that age when they couldn't distinguish right from wrong.
"What do we do..."
"Isn't his arm really going to break at this rate?"
The lay disciples looked around in bewilderment. They were looking for an adult to stop the fight.
However, the adults of the Wudang Sect only visited the lay disciples' quarters twice a day, in the morning and evening. There was no reason for them to pay any more attention than that.
"Hey, customers are here."
Just then, Jeon Oh-soo grabbed my shoulder from behind. It seemed he had come out from the inner hall after hearing the commotion.
"I know."
I brushed Jeon Oh-soo's hand off my shoulder and stepped forward toward the main mountain disciples.
The main mountain disciples looked at me with cautious eyes as I approached.
"What, do you have a complaint against us, too?"
"How could a lay disciple have a complaint against main mountain disciples? I am unworthy, and I have never dared to harbor such a thought."
I brought my fists together over my chest and raised them. It was the fist and palm salute, the greeting method of martial artists.
"I am a lay disciple Mok Hwi-young."
When I acted politely, the main mountain disciples exchanged glances. They didn't know what to do.
"Let us release that friend first and talk. I am sure he understood just that."
"Are you giving us an order right now?"
"No. It is an earnest request."
"Did you come out just to say that?"
How testy. But from a merchant's perspective, customers were always testy.
I cleared my throat and spoke.
"No."
"Then what is it?"
"It is nothing else, but I have some good merchandise."
"Huh?"
At my unexpected words, the main mountain disciples made flustered expressions.
The business was starting now.