Acquiring the Murim with Money - Chapter 10

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 10. The Pungcheon Trading Company

The entrance to the Pungcheon Trading Company.
Two enormous bronze lion statues stood imposingly on either side of the ornate entrance, and the guards stationed between them carried themselves with an air entirely different from ordinary security.
“Halt! We do not receive visitors without an appointment.”
Pung Geun, the head of security whom the Pungcheon Trading Company had hired at considerable expense, blocked their path.
With forearms thicker than the thighs of most grown men and massive, solid pectoral muscles on display, he was a reasonably well-known second-tier master of External Martial Arts in Nakyang’s underworld.
He had long preached a muscle-supremacist philosophy—”Real men are built on strength and size”—and was notorious for forcing his smaller subordinates to train relentlessly and eat extra servings of meat.
Rather than answer, Baek Unhui’s eyes narrowed slightly. The Golden Divine Eye activated, sweeping across Pung Geun’s frame.

[Target Analysis: Pung Geun]
[Target Value: Approximately 700 silver coins (undervalued state)]
[Condition and Remarks: Old injuries continue to erode his asset value.]
[Risk Factors: Excessive muscle concentration in upper body. Lower body—particularly the left ankle’s Qi meridians—tangled and unnatural.]

“When a shop’s threshold grows too high, customers stop coming. Especially today, since I’ve come as Executive of the Baekun Trading Company to discuss our mutual future, wouldn’t you kindly step aside?”
“The Baekun Trading Company? That pitiful hole-in-the-wall peddling swill? Get out of here while I’m still asking nicely, you scrawny brat!”
Pung Geun reached out with his massive hand, attempting to shove Baek Unhui’s shoulder.
Baek Unhui did not dodge. Instead, from within his sleeve, he flicked a single one-coin piece with his fingertip.
Clink!
The coin struck the pressure point on Pung Geun’s wrist with perfect precision—a defense of supreme efficiency, redirecting his opponent’s attack trajectory with nothing but a single copper coin.
“Ow! That hurts, you bastard!”
Pung Geun, now genuinely alarmed, threw a real punch. But Baek Unhui, having already read his weakness, lightly drove his foot forward toward the man’s injured left ankle.
“Do be careful. If you fall and injure yourself like that, you won’t even qualify for worker’s compensation.”
The enormous muscle-bound man lost his balance and tumbled forward, smashing his face into the ground in thoroughly humiliating fashion.
‘This one employs subtle techniques as well.’
Dang Soyou’s eyes gleamed as he studied Baek Unhui’s form with piercing attention.
Meanwhile, Pung Geun lay there, half-convinced he was dreaming. The shame was so overwhelming that he seriously considered faking a Demonic Qi Deviation—foaming at the mouth and losing consciousness—rather than face this moment.
As he remained sprawled out in stunned silence, the guards belatedly came to their senses and moved as one to draw their blades.
At that moment, Baek Yeonhwa stepped forward. From her body, infused with the essence of white ginseng that had gathered for a hundred years, a chilling sword aura exploded outward.
“Stop right there. The moment any of you draw that blade, I will consider it an attack on our trading company.”
The guards fell silent as mice before the cold, elegant pressure emanating from Baek Yeonhwa. Baek Unhui calmly straightened his garments and stepped inside.

* * *

The office of Gong Jayang, proprietor of the Pungcheon Trading Company, was oddly immaculate. Not a speck of dust anywhere. The man seated behind his desk, fingers encased in white gloves, flicked repeatedly at an ivory abacus.
Click, clack-clack, click.
The steady rhythm of the abacus dominated the air within the room. Gong Jayang fixed Baek Unhui with a cold stare through his spectacles, then noticed the figures standing behind him and stilled his hand.
The chilling aura of Baek Yeonhwa, and—standing a half-step back, whistling a nameless tune—an elderly man.
Gong Jayang’s pupils trembled almost imperceptibly. He was a man who manipulated Nakyang’s commercial sphere with ease, yet he was equally versed in the ways of the martial realm.
‘Could it be… Dang Soyou of the Mandok Guild? Why in the world is someone of such stature standing behind that Baekun Trading Company boy?’
The imaginary abacus in Gong Jayang’s mind began spinning frantically.
At that very moment, Baek Unhui was attempting to examine Gong Jayang with his Golden Divine Eye.

[Warning: Unable to analyze target’s asset scale. Target’s actual value does not correspond to surface figures.]

‘What’s this? Can’t read him either. He doesn’t seem to have more assets than Seo Seo, but… could it be that he’s not just wealthy—could his martial prowess be exceptional as well?’
Gong Jayang pushed aside his abacus and rose from his seat.
“An esteemed visitor! I confess I expected only the Executive, never imagining that the Senior of the Mandok Guild would honor us with a personal visit. I am truly astonished.”
“I simply came to see what that reckless boy of mine has been up to. Pay me no mind—feel free to talk comfortably amongst yourselves, merchant to merchant.”
Despite the word “comfortably,” Gong Jayang felt the weight of Dang Soyou’s gaze—as if it pierced straight through him—and suppressed the pressure rising in his chest as he sat once more.
As he settled into his seat, Baek Unhui caught a glimpse of a red tattoo within the collar of Gong Jayang’s garment, and sensed it writhing with an eerie animation.
“Thank you for your words. Then, Executive Baek, shall we proceed to the heart of the matter? What brings you to storm in here?”
Baek Unhui answered calmly in response to Gong Jayang’s rapid pivot to business.
“Storm in? I made it quite clear that I was visiting as the representative of the Baekun Trading Company, yet your guards tried to bar the way with force first. So it seems force is how the Pungcheon Trading Company conducts its affairs. The merchants and small traders of our Baekun have been prevented from conducting mutually beneficial transactions purely because of pressure from your company. Is it not a violation of the Way of Commerce to obstruct market flow through force?”
Gong Jayang was not so easily moved. His cold gaze cut across the room like a blade.
“Markets follow nothing but efficiency alone. The merchants of Nakyang have chosen us because we offer them superior profit—that is their decision. Just as water flows from high to low, so too does wealth gather toward those with the strength to hold it. This is the principle of the Way of Commerce.”
His logic was airtight.
‘He’s not the sort of man to be handled with mere words,’ Baek Unhui thought to himself.
Baek Unhui withdrew the Geumshin Guest Executive Credential Plaque from his robe and displayed it.
“Efficiency, you say… yes, I understand. Then I’ll play by the market’s rules as well. I believe you know what this plaque represents. If I invoke my title and demand official transactions, it would be difficult for merchants to simply refuse, wouldn’t it?”
Gong Jayang’s expression, which had maintained its icy composure, began to cloud over. Baek Unhui’s words continued.
“Still, from the merchants’ perspective, trading with our capital-strapped company won’t be easy. They’ll fear losses if they cross the Pungcheon Trading Company. But we can guarantee those losses. We’ll draw the capital of the Geumshin Pawnshop and pour it into the market. If the Pungcheon Trading Company buys goods at eight, we buy at nine and ten—and if they sell at ten, we sell at nine and eight.”
Gong Jayang’s pupils trembled.
The idea that the Geumshin Pawnshop would lend unlimited capital to this young manager before him made no sense.
Yet something stirred in him—a premonition that the flash of madness in the boy’s eyes shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.
This was no mere struggling trading company manager. Here was someone with the Mandok Guild behind him, and now the Geumshin Pawnshop as his backer besides.
“…You’re insane. You’d bleed yourself dry doing that?”
“The foundation of market economics is competition. If we start a price war, Nakyang’s markets will descend into chaos… but whose losses would be greater? I’m heading for ruin anyway, so I have nothing left to lose.”
Gong Jayang glared at Baek Unhui with his eyes while his mind worked through calculations like an abacus. A tense, short yet eternal silence passed, and at last he exhaled slowly and yielded.
“Fine… there’s no point bleeding the market unnecessarily. We haven’t applied special pressure, but I’ll make sure our people understand not to do so to other small merchants going forward.”
The moment Baek Unhui secured Gong Jayang’s confirmation, the subtle, invisible pressure he’d felt in his lower abdomen drained away like a receding tide. In its place came something far more substantial—the thickened texture of his inner Qi.
‘My inner Qi has solidified.’
He already knew clearly that direct gains in assets corresponded proportionally to the quantity of one’s inner Qi. He’d felt this before to some degree, but now it became evident: factors beyond that subtly transformed the quality of one’s Qi.
The right to trade with merchants, the right to conduct commerce—invisible yet undeniably valuable, these Intangible Assets had been recorded on the ledger of his being.
“A wise decision indeed. Ah, and one more thing. I don’t believe rumors, but curious talk has been circulating through the market—something about Heuksabang having connections to the Pungcheon Trading Company, or that Heuksabang was betrayed and abandoned…”
Gong Jayang hesitated for a moment. Yet if more troublesome matters emerged, it could jeopardize his greater plans. He chose to ignore the interesting gleam in the eyes of the Mandok Guild representative behind Baek Unhui, answering calmly.
“The market floor is always rife with unreliable gossip of every sort. Ah, so Heuksabang had troubles with the Baekun Trading Company? Our company doesn’t associate with such contemptible vermin, so let’s not speak of these baseless rumors.”
“‘Doesn’t associate with contemptible vermin,’ I see. I understand perfectly. I’m pleasantly surprised how smoothly we communicate, Director. I’ll visit again soon.”
Baek Unhui smiled brazenly.
Gong Jayang realized he’d felt cracks form in his composure multiple times today.
“…I’ll take my leave now. Divine Physician, it was an honor meeting you. Farewell.”
As Dang Soyou took his leave after receiving Gong Jayang’s parting words, he felt a peculiar sense of unease.
‘Clearly this merchant boy has no inner Qi at all… yet why this unsettling discomfort? Have I grown old? How strange.’
After leaving the Pungcheon Trading Company’s main establishment, Baek Unhui headed straight for the Baekun Trading Company’s office.
“Didn’t you say you were going to eliminate the remaining Heuksabang forces?”
At Baek Yeonhwa’s question, Baek Unhui smiled.
“I’ve just extracted ‘guaranteed free trading rights’ from Old Man Gong Jayang, so shouldn’t I immediately secure some Military Funds in cash to deploy in the market?”
Upon arriving at the office, Baek Unhui tossed a thick ledger from deep within a drawer toward the bewildered So Yang.
“What’s this?”
“Over the past fortnight, a list of Nakyang’s upper-class patrons who lined up before dawn outside our trading company to purchase Golden Silk Green Jade Confection and Yellow Oil Sticky Cake. I had Seo Seo record the families and names of all the servants in line, their addresses, and purchase frequency.”
So Yang flipped through the ledger, his brow narrowing.
“There are definitely names here of families and merchants who move significant money in Nakyang. So? Are you planning to create new products to sell to these people?”
“No. We won’t be selling ‘goods’ right away.”
Baek Unhui picked up his teacup leisurely, his eyes brightening.
“We’re going to sell ‘privilege’ to the people on this list.”
“Privilege?”
Baek Unhui withdrew a jade pendant tinged with an elegant violet hue from his robe and placed it on the table. At its center, the characters “Baekun” were embroidered in gold thread.
“Fifty violet jade pendants. Starting now, have Donggi and Cheon Imang send invitations only to the top fifty customers who’ve spent the most money from this list.”
“These jade pendants look quite refined. The cost should be around one silver coin each.”
“Tell them that anyone purchasing one of these jade pendants for twenty silver coins will receive priority placement of all limited-edition Western delicacies and rare luxuries our Baekun Trading Company offers for the next year—placed on their private tea gathering tables without waiting in line.”
So Yang’s jaw dropped.
“Twenty silver coins?! Are you mad? Not even the price of goods—you’re selling just a credential for priority purchasing for twenty silver coins? Who would buy that!”
“They have no choice but to buy. In their circles, presenting the finest luxuries before others at a tea gathering transcends mere ostentation—it’s power itself.”
This was the moment Baek Unhui’s marketing—what the modern world would call VVIP membership and subscription economics—descended upon the martial world’s commercial sphere.

Money-Backed Martial Acquisitions, Chapter 10

Author
Song Jjeonbol
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yoon Tae-ri
Cover
Sik

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260907057.0010

© 2026, Song Jjwol

※ This e-book is a work protected by the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of the contents of this work may be reprocessed in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————