Book 26 Chapter 11

Coins that buy souls

-Hyun Woon vs. King Namhae

Buyer beware!

A coin that literally buys souls.

That was the King of Nanhai's Dokwun martial art. It was a "shooting" technique that literally took the life of an enemy by shooting a coin into the air. It's so terrifying that it's sometimes referred to as dehorned vision. A series of coins, each as fast as a flash of light, would come flying towards the target without any staggering. You can't just bounce them off because they're loaded with balls.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Heavy!

Hyun-woon took five steps back, blocking three incoming falconry blows. He had stepped back on purpose to diffuse the impact, but even so, his grip was tingling with pain. If he had stayed, he might have broken his sword. But he didn't have time to think about it. Before he could right himself, another four coins flew toward him. Head, heart, short circuit, spleen, all deadly points.

Bang! Bang!

I hit two and dodged two. They were much faster than before, and he couldn't deflect them all. Hyun-woon took another three steps back, narrowly dodging another two coins that cut through the air, but not quite, tearing into his shoulders and waist. His skin burned.

It was a split-second difference, as the former spirit paused its attack, allowing Hyun-woon to catch his breath.

'I guess they don't call it 'buying a soul' for nothing. If I hadn't been so careful, I would have been impaled by that coin!

To stop him, he needed to get closer than a certain distance, but he kept moving away. At this distance, his sword was out of reach. He was now completely out of range of his opponent.

"It's already ten bucks……. That's more expensive than I thought."

Money is money, even if it's pennies. The ex-husband was very unhappy that his blood money kept getting away from him, but there was still time: he still had all three of his anterior sacs.

"You're not there yet. You'll soon realize that no amount of money can buy a human life."

He pointed his sword pole at the King of the South Seas' forehead, a sort of threat to charge in, but it was not to be. The King of the South Seas was not easily defended. Furthermore, it would be dangerous to rush in without a clear understanding of the technique and its power.

"I told you before, there's nothing in this world that money can't buy. Your price is higher than some of my recent purchases, but they will be sold soon. Money is justice, money is everything in this world."

He had no doubt that a man's life could be bought with money, for he had done so, and many others had done so. Adding one more to the mix made no difference.

"I don't want to bet against your values that money is everything, but……."

Jeon-hon sneered, interrupting Hyun-woon.

"Well, yes, because the Tosarans are a ruggedly individualistic race, aren't they? They extort money from people by promising them an escape from this world. In short, they're con artists."

"You're a fraud! I can't stand that insult! Cancel!"

Hyun-woon, a disciple of a shamanic sect with a sign that reads "Hsinchu First Dynasty," couldn't let the king of Namhae's words go unchallenged.

"Well, I doubt it, they're not only crooks, they're cowards."

The expression on King Nanhai's face was one of unequivocal contempt; he truly despised the Taoist race.

"On what basis are you accusing the Taoists of being cowards again?"

A cheat and a coward, what does this guy have against the Taoist?

"Hmm, so you don't think so, do you? The Taoist Naburangs say that the Fudo line is the ultimate goal, or in other words, the left-hand path? Hmm, that's not even funny, so you deserve to be called a coward."

"What's so funny about that? Zazen is the Buddhist path to liberation, the path to purification from the attachments of this world."

How many people have shed blood and sweat to get there, but the cruel truth is that it is a place that cannot be reached by bloody effort alone, but nevertheless, it is the way of the Taoist not to give up.

"Clean? I can't stop laughing at them. They're human, after all. They think they can survive in this world without the money the faithful give them, and they steal from the faithful with tales of divine wonders. They live off the money of others without earning it with their own hands! I despise them the most in this world."

Up until now, his demeanor had contained the same pretense as a merchant's dealings with his customers, but now it was thick with hatred.

"Taoists also farm, grow tea, and make medicine. You'd be wrong to think that all they do is play."

He, too, has done many things since his initiation at a young age. He wasn't just chanting the Tao Te Ching in front of a statue of the Primordial Heavenly Being.

"Hahaha, do you know why I hate the Taoists?"

"……."

"My parents were landowners for generations, so they were rich but stupid. I guess they got rich and then they got afraid of dying. They wanted to enjoy the movie a little longer, so one day a bullshit guru came along who promised them eternal life. The original parent was so stupid that he fell for it and took his fortune."

"That's……."

Hyun-woon had heard that there were people who wore the masks of masters and ran scams. There were also those who sold fake pills claiming to be elixirs of life.

"I was only ten years old at the time, but even to me what my parents were doing was stupid. What they were doing was even more suspicious, and I knew I'd be damned if I let them get away with it, so I couldn't help myself and shouted at them, "Father, mother, these people are frauds, and you can't give away your wealth like they say!" And do you know what they pointed at me and said?"

"……I don't know."

Hyunwoon's voice was calm as he answered.

"They said an unbeliever like me would go to hell. They called me a child of the devil, saying that only those who believe in the Tao have eternal life in heaven."

"Wait, that's strange. There's nothing in the Tao Te Ching that says you can go to heaven by believing in the Tao. How is that any different than saying you can become a god by believing in the Tao? The Tao is not about believing. The Tao is realized."

She didn't even pretend to listen to Hyun-woon's rant.

"What does it matter? That was their faith, and it brought our house down, and all our knowledge and riches were lost in the belly of that fake guru."

"……."

Hyun-woon was suddenly speechless. He despised those who sold the Tao without knowing anything about it. He didn't recognize them as real masters either, but it was a fact that they were selling the Tao and eternal life. That bothered him. He couldn't help but feel that the true Tao he was seeking was being tainted. Besides, no matter what he said now, it was clear that his words as a Taoist would not reach the ears of King Nanhai.

"What do you think I would have done at a younger age?"

Hyun-woon replied that he didn't know. King Namhae was even more excited to see Hyun-woon's anguished expression. It was like he was getting revenge.

"Before my house was completely destroyed, I fled to a distant relative's house with a few gold bars hidden deep in a storage room, a distant relative who was uninvolved and therefore a little darker about wealth than the rest of the family. I had a gift for recognizing who wanted money, who didn't, and how much they wanted. I had a merchant's eye, a way of reading people's needs. Anyway, I cried, told them my story, gave them some money, and they let me live there. A while later, I heard that the house had been destroyed. My parents hanged themselves."

"such as……."

Hyun-woon found it hard to breathe. His heart felt very heavy, as if the sins of the cheaters were his own.

"After that, I grew up in a distant relative's mansion, learning martial arts, of course, but I was more interested in making money, in recovering what I had lost, what I should have inherited. The gold bars I stole from the house helped me set up a shop, and I made a decent amount of money from it as seed money. Ten years later, I was able to track down those crooked Taoists, and they were living the high life, with their three wives and three children, on the money I stole from them. So do you know what I did?"

As he said this, he chuckled as if he found it very funny. Hyun-woon could only listen.

"I took my money that way, and went to the 'Ya Tian Wu'."

"If it's a nightmare!"

I've also heard that ominous name, Hyunwoon, and they must be…….

"Yes, that's right, the Night Crows, one of the top three assassination agencies. I paid for his life, with the money I earned, and exactly one week later he was dead."

The Nankai King's ex-wife's tone was very casual.

"What, promise me eternal life? That's ridiculous. I absorbed a bunch of his shops that were torn apart by the loss of their owners, and while it was a pretty hefty price to pay, it was worth it for the income that followed."

The idea of weighing the profit and loss of such a thing, Hyun-woon couldn't follow his logic.

"After that, I was convinced that there was nothing in this world to trust but money. After all, it was money that saved his life, and it was money that completed my revenge. It was clear to me that I could not survive in this world without the Tao or Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu. But as my family business grew, I began to see organizations here and there that claimed to be powerful. To protect my money, I needed strength, so I came to this temple to develop greater strength. That's the end of my story. How about this, should I not call you a cheat and a coward?"

"…I certainly have nothing to refute what you say, and I understand your reasons for hating the Taoist, but I still believe that there is something right about the Taoist teachings. It is not the Taoist teachings that are bad, but those who distort them for their own personal gain."

"How can I trust that you are not of that ilk?"

"I'm not asking you to believe me, but it's dangerous to look at a part and judge the whole by it."

"Weren't you the one who claimed to be able to see Samaritan through a speck of dust, so I guess I'll have to add coward and liar to the list of cheaters."

"That's the Buddhist side, too. And isn't it the Zhuangzi side that has more cheaters? Should we call all Zhuangzi cheaters just because we've been cheated by some of those cheating Zhuangzi? If all Buddhists are cheaters, then you're a cheating Zhuangzi."

"……!!"

By that logic, my ex-husband would have a hard time refuting it. The standards applied to others would be applied to oneself. Hyun-woon spoke again in a serious voice.

"To be honest, I was once as skeptical of the Tao as you are, thinking it was a coward's idea."

It's not that I hadn't suspected that they were afraid to come into contact with the world, but there are enough of them now to fill an army.

"But it is not because we are cowards that we seek the Way, for you know full well that the reason of this world is man-made, unstable and changeable, and that the 'riches' you seek to hold on to so tightly may disappear at any moment, so we masters seek to find something more immutable, something that some call the Way and some call the Truth. This is my Way, and you are wrong to think that money can buy anything."

"Doesn't your logic suggest that you might be wrong?"

"I can't rule it out, we all make mistakes, but I don't think it's right to be paralyzed by fear of them."

"Hmm, you're all about what's good for you, and who are you to tell someone else that their path is wrong?"

"No, I'm going to tell you that the path you're on is wrong, but at the end of the day, you're the one who's going to choose it, and my godfather would have said, 'That's what you do when you're sure of yourself, you push through.'"

So take responsibility for your condition now.

"Why don't you save that for after you've knocked me out?"

"Good, and I have a job to do, and to do that, I'm going to beat you, both for the mission I have to accomplish and to prove you wrong."

"Do you think you can beat me?"

"I understand that you've had some bitter experiences in your past, but that doesn't give you permission to hurt or shatter other people now. There are plenty of people who have gone through that and come out the other side unscathed. It's 'cowardly' to say that because of my bad past, I'm the way I am. The real coward is you."

"I'm a coward! Have I said enough?"

"No, I'm not done yet, and I can go on and on, but no matter who you are or what you've done to me, I will never forgive you for breaking my heart, and I will take you down, and I will show you that there are some things that all your hard-earned money can't buy."

"Okay, that's fun. The sea you wanted! Wait, I'm about to put a price on your life."

"You're probably not going to make it, and you're going to give up at a huge loss."

Hyun-woon's dormant soul was ignited. The dragon that had been frolicking in the pond was now about to ascend.

"Because I'm starting to recognize your sting."

"Ho, ho, that's a tough one to take, because that means they've seen through you, and if they've seen through you, you're not in business anymore, are you?"

Once you've shown the bottom of the barrel, there's no equalizing.

Phew!

Once again, a matchmaking game has flown out of the hands of the South Sea King's ex-wife.

Land!

Hyun-woon swung his sword and struck it down.

Here we go again, with two birds of a feather.

Land! Land!

Hyun-woon hit both of them again.

"Why? I think I've seen something like this happen before.

Hyun-woon wondered as he pushed them away. Surely he had experienced something like this before. Memories that he had only buried because they were so horrifying. Most of those memories were related to his arch-enemy, Bi Ryuyeon.

"Are you sure you're reading this, my bachelor pad?"

Seeing that Hyun-woon's evasive maneuvers had gained a bit more leeway, King Namhae exclaimed in a surprised tone.

"I didn't tell you, it's getting old."

He had never lied. The King of the South Seas' brow creased in a pleasing way. A shot or two at this rate would be a waste of money.

"Good. Then stop this technology, and I'll give you credit."

He grabbed a handful of coins and stacked them to form a column of coins, then raised his right hand, which he had been playing with, to chest level.

They're going to attack with both hands.

"Here they come!

Hyun-woon concentrated.

Bargain for Life (奪命買魂錢)

Secrets

Seven Star Personality (七連飛星擊)

The ex-husband's left and right hands moved simultaneously, sending seven coins flying in quick succession.