Is That Really All? (3)
“K-krkhm.”
Geum Yang-baek hurriedly cleared his throat. A man of ordinary standing might have been forgiven for choking on his words, but for a martial artist of Geum Yang-baek’s caliber to lose control of his own body was a shameful thing indeed.
And yet who in the world would not be thrown off balance by hearing those words to his face?
What had he just said?
“Just now…”
After steadying his breathing once more, Geum Yang-baek asked again.
“Did you tell me to… leave the Ten Great Sects?”
“Yes.”
The answer came back at once, without the slightest hesitation. That only made it more bewildering.
Geum Yang-baek found himself at a loss for words again, staring at Baek Cheon. If he opened his mouth now, he felt certain he would say something he ought not to.
What on earth was this man?
What kind of person strode in carrying Mount Hua’s divine relic and calmly told him to withdraw from the Ten Great Sects?
Has anyone in the history of the Jianghu ever heard such a thing?
He would say no, absolutely no one. To tell a sect already belonging to the Ten Great Sects to kick itself out by its own feet—only someone who had lost his mind would dare say such a thing.
Not even the Demonic Sect, which had once invaded the Central Plains, or the great demonic factions of the evil path that had long ago plunged the land into blood and vanished, would have spoken so casually.
Anyone who understood what the name “Ten Great Sects” meant could never say such a thing. Especially if they had even the faintest idea of what Hainan had gone through to earn its place among them.
And so…
No, wait.
Geum Yang-baek flinched and quickly swept the thoughts forming in his head away.
For a moment, he had wondered whether Baek Cheon was saying this because Hainan had taken a place that had originally belonged to Mount Hua, and this was some lingering ill will born from that.
How can I even think such blasphemous nonsense?
The thought alone was shameful.
These were people who had crossed Jiangnan, practically a death trap, to come all the way here. What kind of person would do something like this out of mere malice?
More than that, even from everything he had heard about the Heavenly Friends Alliance and Mount Hua, such suspicions were nothing but the shameful pettiness of a small-minded man.
Feeling deeply ashamed that such a thought had even crossed his mind, Geum Yang-baek spoke again in a far more careful tone.
“This humble sect leader is foolish, and I cannot quite grasp the true meaning of Acting Sect Leader Baek’s words. What exactly did you intend by saying that…?”
“Exactly what I said.”
But Baek Cheon answered as firmly as before, as if Geum Yang-baek’s feelings had not entered his mind at all.
“I am suggesting that you cast off the name of the Ten Great Sects, which now remains only as an empty shell, and join us in the Heavenly Friends Alliance.”
“What…?”
“What in the world are you saying…?”
The elders of Hainan, who had been guarding Geum Yang-baek, broke into an uproar. They too stared at Baek Cheon as if they could not believe their ears.
“What are you thinking!”
“How can you say something so rude…!”
“Silence.”
“But Sect Leader, that—”
“I said silence.”
When Geum Yang-baek cut them off sharply, the elders coughed awkwardly and shut their mouths at last. They had butted in because they were too stunned to restrain themselves, but this was not the sort of place where they could speak their minds as they pleased.
Click.
For a moment, Geum Yang-baek kept silent and lifted the teacup set before him.
“The tea will get cold. It is brewed from fine leaves grown on the high mountains of Hainan. Why not savor its fragrance?”
“Thank you.”
Baek Cheon smiled lightly at that and raised the cup. From the way he lifted it to the careful manner in which he savored the tea, there was not a single flaw in the gesture. It was smooth, graceful, and perfect.
“Are you perhaps interested in tea ceremony?”
At Geum Yang-baek’s question, Baek Cheon lowered the cup and smiled faintly.
“I was not fortunate enough to study tea ceremony in any formal sense, but since Hyun Jong Jin-in, the former Sect Leader of Mount Hua, enjoys tea so much, I learned the proper etiquette by watching him.”
“Ah, Hyun Jong Jin-in…? Wait. Did Hyun Jong Jin-in step down as sect leader?”
“I had not yet mentioned that. The former Sect Leader has passed the title on to the current Sect Leader of Mount Hua, Un Geom Jin-in.”
“Hah…”
Once again, Geum Yang-baek could not hide his shock.
“Hy, Hyun Jong Jin-in… no, your sect’s Taesang Jangmun…?”
“That is not the case. The Sect Leader is still in excellent health.”
“I see…”
“I cannot fully comprehend the depths of his intentions, but I believe he judged that it was time to entrust the position to the younger generation.”
It was one astounding thing after another. The remark about leaving the Ten Great Sects was absurd enough, but this was no less unbelievable.
He stepped down of his own accord?
At a time like this? It was incomprehensible.
The Jianghu was facing a tremendous crisis. In such circumstances, was it really possible for the one leading a sect to hand his place to a successor and retire? Just how much faith did he have to place in the disciples he had raised to do something like that?
Geum Yang-baek could not even imagine it.
No. That’s not all.
In fact, Mount Hua’s momentum now was no exaggeration to say it even threatened Shaolin. Perhaps in raw strength they still did not match Shaolin, but in terms of influence over the Jianghu, there were certainly points where they surpassed it.
There must have been a long, long road of patience and waiting to bring Mount Hua this far. They had endured pain like sinking waist-deep into a swamp, over and over, until at last they had reached glory—and now the one at the center of it all had stepped back on his own? How little greed must a man possess to do such a thing?
“You are… truly remarkable.”
“I think so too.”
A sigh escaped Geum Yang-baek’s lips.
The positions have completely reversed.
When they had met before, Hyun Jong had not been someone he could even begin to compare himself to. But now the situation had turned over. He himself could no longer even hope to tread on Hyun Jong’s shadow.
He had become an incapable man who had brought Hainan to the edge of ruin, while Hyun Jong had become the one who raised what had once been only a third-rate sect, Mount Hua, into a great sect renowned under heaven.
Truly, fortune turns like the wheel of the world.
Suppressing the flood of emotions rising in him, Geum Yang-baek spoke in a voice that he tried to keep calm.
“I think I can understand why Acting Sect Leader Baek would make such a proposal. Having learned under someone as detached from worldly concerns as Hyun Jong Jin-in, it must seem that names like the Ten Great Sects are nothing but empty pretense.”
“…”
“But Acting Sect Leader. I believe you should also consider what the Ten Great Sects mean in the eyes of the world, and how people look upon them. The Ten Great Sects are…”
“I know, Sect Leader.”
Geum Yang-baek looked quietly at Baek Cheon.
Cutting off another sect leader mid-sentence was the height of rudeness, but at the moment Geum Yang-baek did not wish to fuss over such things. More than that, he was curious what Baek Cheon would say next.
“You say you know?”
“Yes. Perhaps I know better than you do. You are the one who led Hainan after it became one of the Nine Great Sects, but we are the ones who only ever looked up at the Ten Great Sects from the lowest of places.”
At that, Geum Yang-baek found himself nodding before he knew it.
Come to think of it, Mount Hua had also only just risen to its present position. They too must once have gazed at the Ten Great Sects with eyes filled with both envy and resentment. And surely they must have dreamed that one day they would return to those ranks.
“And yet you still say such things to us?”
“Yes.”
Baek Cheon closed his eyes briefly and opened them again. Then, as if there were no need to dance around the matter, he said with cool finality,
“The reason is simple. The present Ten Great Sects are no place where Hainan needs to cling desperately to remain.”
“Acting Sect Leader…”
“The fact that we are here now…”
Baek Cheon broke off and shifted his gaze toward the elders seated behind Geum Yang-baek. Meeting each of their eyes in turn, he continued.
“...proves that by ‘us,’ I mean people who are not part of the Ten Great Sects.”
A sigh escaped Geum Yang-baek before he could stop it. After a long breath, he spoke in a slightly slower voice.
“Of course, for all of you to have come all this way here, no expression of gratitude would be enough. As Hainan’s sect leader, and as a man of Hainan Island, I offer you my deepest thanks.”
“…”
“But Acting Sect Leader. That and this are separate matters. That gratitude and…”
“Originally.”
Baek Cheon cut him off once more.
This time, even Geum Yang-baek frowned in irritation. But what Baek Cheon said next only made him more displeased.
“It should have been the Ten Great Sects, not us, who came here.”
“…”
“The reason is simple. Those who use the name of righteousness have a duty to help the people who have fallen into hardship, no matter the circumstances.”
Finishing there, Baek Cheon swept his gaze across everyone present.
“That is why we of the Heavenly Friends Alliance also wish to apologize to everyone here.”
Still seated, Baek Cheon bowed deeply. Geum Yang-baek, startled by the sudden gesture, shifted in his seat.
“W-why are you suddenly doing this, Acting Sect Leader!”
“We should have come sooner. We should have realized sooner that Hainan needed our help, that the situation in Hainan was not good. For failing to do so… no, for the half-hearted indifference we showed despite being able to do better, please forgive us.”
“How could that possibly be the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s fault? Please, Acting Sect Leader! Raise your head at once!”
Only then did Baek Cheon slowly straighten up.
“Sect Leader.”
“Yes, Acting Sect Leader.”
“Pardon my rudeness, but to say that it cannot be the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s fault is not reasonable. The Heavenly Friends Alliance was raised under the banner of cherishing righteousness. It has also gained much because of that. If such an alliance failed to do what it ought to have done, then it deserves criticism.”
For a moment, Geum Yang-baek felt as though he were being drawn into Baek Cheon’s words.
He was upright. Simply upright.
Sometimes uprightness could mean rigid stubbornness that left no room to breathe, but at other times it became a force stronger than anything else in the world.
Brute strength, power, authority, circumstance—everything could be surpassed. What Baek Cheon now stood upon was uprightness, and uprightness alone was enough to overwhelm Geum Yang-baek.
“That is why I ask.”
Baek Cheon met Geum Yang-baek’s gaze directly.
“Where are the ones who should have defended that righteousness before anyone else?”
“Acting Sect Leader…”
“You must understand. No. You must acknowledge it, Sect Leader.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Baek Cheon delivered his cold verdict.
“The Ten Great Sects abandoned Hainan.”
Those words became a blade and carved straight through Geum Yang-baek’s heart.