Chapter 170
Translator: penny
Chapter: 170
Chapter Title: Baek Eunjeong's Plea
Two months had passed since Baek Eunjeong and I first met.
It was a period that could be called short or long, depending on how you looked at it. In that time, a great many things had happened to the Baek Family.
The first was their break with the Shadow Gate Sect.
As everyone knew, the Baek Family had been so tight-knit with the Shadow Gate Sect that they'd even sent an assassination squad after me through Baek Eunjeong.
-The Baek Family and our Shadow Gate Sect aren't that close.
That was what the Shadow Gate Sect Leader had said when I'd shown my discomfort before...
'Looks like they really were pretty tight.'
Maybe the Shadow Gate Sect hadn't been all that intimate with the Baek Family.
But from what Baek Eunjeong was saying, the Baek Family had been incredibly dependent on them.
"After breaking ties with the Shadow Gate Sect, our Baek Family couldn't get any information at all. Not even on the martial world situation, let alone anything about Shandong Province."
The Baek Family had been fools.
I didn't know when they'd joined hands with the Shadow Gate Sect, but the fact that they hadn't built their own intelligence network was proof of that.
Of course, in normal times, it might not have mattered much. But not now.
What was the state of the martial world these days?
Battles where everyone slaughtered each other broke out left and right.
Shandong Province in particular saw fights erupting daily, with countless sects already wiped out.
No information in the middle of all that?
It was the perfect setup for getting isolated and dying.
"And that's not all. Problems started cropping up with the businesses we run. Employees began quitting one after another..."
That wasn't the only issue.
'How could they be this stupid? Or was their bond really that deep?'
The Baek Family's businesses had recently mirrored the structure of the Eun Merchant Group.
What that meant was they'd sourced all their laborers through the Shadow Gate Sect.
From the Shadow Gate Sect's side, it was probably to manipulate the Baek Family at will. From the Baek Family's perspective, it filled their manpower shortages, so they were satisfied.
But the Shadow Gate Sect Leader was ruthless.
He'd pulled all the manpower from the Baek Family's businesses in one go.
He must have thought I hated the Baek Family and cut ties to protect himself. But that move led straight to their downfall.
According to her, the atmosphere was the first problem.
In the already volatile Shandong Province these days, more than half the employees quit all at once, as if by prior agreement?
The remaining ones, clueless as they were, sensed something was up and started leaving too.
The Baek Family tried to hold on by shrinking their businesses, but that only eroded the trust of their retainers and employees.
And they couldn't exactly reveal their ties to the Shadow Gate Sect either.
'If word got out that they'd colluded, the Shadow Gate Sect might shrug it off as unorthodox scum, but the Baek Family would be done for.'
And as the saying goes, bad luck comes in waves.
The flames of war rising in Shandong Province had latched onto the Baek Family too.
With no laborers, they'd sent out a large merchant caravan using family warriors instead, heading to Jiangsu Province. Unorthodox fighters mistook them for carrying valuables and attacked.
The culprits who raided the caravan were from White Horse Valley.
A major sect on the level of the Nine Great Sects and Eight Great Powers, just like the Assassins' Gate.
'Tch, of all places, Jiangsu Province...'
Jiangsu Province was in no better shape than Shandong right now.
A battlefield where the orthodox and unorthodox slaughtered each other.
It might have been fine when they were allied with the Shadow Gate Sect, but not after the split.
With no intel, the Baek Family's caravan got ambushed by White Horse Valley, which dominated Jiangsu. They lost a ton of warriors in the process.
And in that state, the Baek Family didn't even have the capacity for revenge...
"Even the disappointed retainers are leaving our family one by one..."
In just two months, the Baek Family was on the brink of ruin.
And a little more time would seal it for good.
'That's why the haughty young lady from before is bowing her head now.'
In my view, there were two reasons the Baek Family had declined so quickly.
One was over-relying on the Shadow Gate Sect. The other was the absence of a family head.
A family head wasn't just the strongest person in the clan.
They were the one who led it.
What happens if a family has no head?
'What happens? It turns into a mess.'
The head usually decides based on what's best for the family.
Why? Because the family is theirs, after all.
But the others working for the family aren't like that.
With a head around, they might support family-first decisions to curry favor. But without one, most prioritize their own gain.
Normally, such a vacancy wouldn't last long. But the Baek Family's situation was special.
'The head didn't die—he's just lying there in qi deviation.'
If he'd died, someone new would have taken over. But unfortunately for the Baek Family, the head was still clinging to life.
And there wasn't even a young head around—the young head Baek Jiun was off tumbling in the White Tiger Unit.
'Who would've thought the Baek Family would crumble like this...'
Listening to Baek Eunjeong, I felt a strange sensation.
What kind of family was the Baek Family?
I was more familiar with the term "Baek Great Family."
In the original future, after the Shandong Peaks fell, the Baek Great Family rose to take a spot among the Five Great Families.
They kept soaring from there, eventually surpassing the Nangong Family to become revered as the world's foremost clan.
'Though the Cheon Family is an exception.'
The Cheon Family, founded by Cheon Seon-u, might top the charts in might and influence, but their organization was small.
They didn't expand businesses or dominate regions.
By my standards, the Baek Great Family was the world's greatest.
And now, the precious direct descendant of that Baek Great Family was...
"Young Master, please help us."
...kneeling before me, head bowed.
Baek Eunjeong, who had haughtily rejected me just two months ago, was now begging.
'This is... thrilling.'
Since regressing, I'd changed a lot.
I'd claimed Somwol, whom I'd never tasted in my past life. I'd made Moyong Hui, who was meant for Cheon Woojin, my girlfriend.
And that wasn't all.
Cheon Woojin, the Lecherous Demon who'd troubled me most, was now my subordinate. Baek Rihyeon, who'd delivered my final blow, now called me "Big Bro."
Beyond that, I'd killed my nemesis Chu Munrak and bedded countless women like Eun Garyeon, Yang Hwajeong, Nangong Sua, and more.
'I, who should've been called the Flowery Playboy by now, even earned the fancy title of Divine Dragon.'
That's right.
Since regressing, I'd done countless things and altered countless futures.
But nothing had hit me this hard before.
My actions had changed the future of a family destined to become one of the martial world's pillars, a Five Great Family.
'Not that I meant to.'
A brief audience with the Shadow Gate Sect Leader, not even an hour long.
-Eh, forget it. They don't look like a family that'll last anyway.
That one offhand remark of mine had led to this.
It gave me, who still sometimes doubted my regression, ironclad proof that the future was changing.
I was no longer just the Lecherous Demon Mok Jimyeong.
I was Mok Jimyeong, the Divine Dragon, rising star of the orthodox faction.
Baek Eunjeong awaited my answer.
Savoring the thrill, I dropped the formal speech.
"So, what do you want me to do? Go back to the Shadow Gate Sect Leader and tell him to play nice with the Baek Family?"
She flinched at my sudden casual tone.
But only for a moment. She soon spoke even more deferentially.
"No. Our Baek Family has already gone too far down the path away from the Shadow Gate Sect. Instead..."
"Instead?"
What else could she want besides me talking to the Shadow Gate Sect Leader?
Nothing came to mind.
But her next words startled me.
"I've heard you're closely tied to the Eun Merchant Group. Could you perhaps connect our Baek Family to them?"
"The Eun Merchant Group?"
Why was the Beijing-based Eun Merchant Group coming up here all of a sudden?
It wasn't completely out of left field, but I still couldn't quite grasp it.
'Has the Eun Merchant Group grown that big already?'
I'd once warned Eun Garyeon that war was coming and the Shandong Peaks would fall.
I knew she'd been working hard to prepare.
But this was too soon, wasn't it?
'How many months have passed since then?'
I could understand the Baek Family collapsing in two months.
Ruin could come in an instant, after all.
But building influence and power? That was a whole different story.
From what Baek Eunjeong said, it sounded like they already wielded significant sway in Shandong Province...
'Is that even possible?'
Suddenly, I recalled meeting Eun Garyeon before leaving Beijing.
'She said she was planning to ally with the Peng Family and other martial clans...'
Guess I needed to look into the Eun Merchant Group sometime.
How Garyeon was doing, how much the group had grown, that sort of thing.
But right now, there was something more pressing.
"Hmm, you want me to hook you up with the Eun Merchant Group?"
"...I beg you."
Honestly, it was a much easier request than asking me to tell the Shadow Gate Sect Leader to reconcile.
It would benefit the Eun Merchant Group too.
'Their target was the Shandong Peaks from the start, after all.'
Even if not, Eun Garyeon wouldn't refuse my suggestion.
In other words, it was a piece of cake for me.
And right there before me, on her knees, was a beauty.
Baek Rihyeon's half-sister and direct descendant of the Baek Great Family, Baek Eunjeong.
'I'd been missing the courtesans after letting them go...'
I held back the grin tugging at my lips and said,
"Why should I?"
When something comes your way, there has to be something in return.