Chapter 132
Chapter 132
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 132
Chapter Title: Declaration of Gaecheon Baekga
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Two forces combined, hundreds of martial artists gathered in one place.
As such, people from the vicinity began to flock.
Some with curious expressions, others with anxious and fearful faces.
Some to witness the rare spectacle, others ready to flee faster than anyone just in case.
Their numbers surpassed a hundred.
Enough to spread rumors later and become the talk among the people.
Amidst this, Baek Clan Manor Lord, the Twin Severing Sword Hero Baek Mu-ryang, spoke in a calm tone.
“The reason our clan came all the way to Namchang is because there are people here who need help.”
“Ha, so you're resorting to such a trivial excuse! Helping Namchang's people is our White Righteousness Sect's duty!”
“Trivial excuse, you say.”
Baek Mu-ryang forcibly suppressed the laughter bubbling up inside him.
Trivial.
Not words befitting one who walks the righteous path.
But instead of rebuking him, Baek Mu-ryang simply asked.
“Then, what is truly important to you, White Righteousness Sect Leader?”
“What's the use of saying it! The outrageous deeds you're committing are the gravest matters of all!”
The Baek Clan had led its armed forces into the White Righteousness Sect's territory.
It was conduct that shattered the sect's face—a serious affair indeed.
However.
“This Baek I...”
Baek Mu-ryang, who habitually humbled himself, paused for a moment.
He scanned his surroundings before continuing.
“...differ greatly from you in my thinking, Sect Leader.”
“I have no interest in your thinking. So explain yourself. Why dare you infringe on our sect's banner!”
“Explain, you say?”
To demand an explanation was an order from superior to inferior, or words a sinner used toward the one hearing their confession.
Yet Baek Mu-ryang replied thus.
“Very well. I shall explain. Every martial artist of the Baek Clan, this clan lord included, has acted solely for the peace of Namchang's common folk.”
“Roundabout excuses circling back to the start. Not worth hearing.”
The White Righteousness Sect Leader shouted his agreement and raised his voice anew with surging momentum.
“You mere excuse-makers, in the name of the White Righteousness Sect, I shall punish you!”
But.
A louder voice, a stronger presence, crushed the White Righteousness Sect Leader.
“However!”
“Urk...!”
Shock flashed in the White Righteousness Sect Leader's eyes.
The man before him, the Baek Clan Lord, had been a mere second-rate warrior just a few years prior.
The clan he led was a third-rate martial family, utterly unworthy of the Sect Leader's notice.
Yet this immense presence?
Peak expert... no, a realm higher than even Gong Ya-hyeok...!
It was inevitable.
The years Baek Mu-ryang had spent as clan lord were of incomparable density to Gong Ya-hyeok's.
Ever since taking Yang-hui as adopted son, the clan had prospered day by day.
Baek Mu-ryang had been lost in one deep worry.
Was he worthy of being the Baek Clan's lord?
He could not nod with confidence.
That's why I spent most of the past nine years in secluded training.
He refused to become an inadequate lord, overwhelmed by the clan's skyrocketing power.
So that, standing before his clansmen, he could proudly declare himself Baek Mu-ryang, lord of the Baek Clan.
And today.
Baek Mu-ryang realized his path as clan lord had reached a crossroads.
“I propose to you, Sect Leader. Our clan has moved only for the common folk's peace. Please allow the Baek Clan to lend a hand in your sect's righteous campaign.”
The immediate reply was refusal, as expected.
“We need no aid from you insolent wretches! Do not distort the sequence of events under the pretext of alliance!”
It was sound logic. Difficult to refute.
In the present situation, it was the Baek Clan being unreasonable.
However.
“Then promise me. That the moment our Baek Clan withdraws, you will subjugate the unruly black path gangs.”
“Know your place, Baek Clan Lord! By what authority do you command a promise! It's absurd from the start that you think you can commit atrocities and withdraw cleanly!”
“Indeed. Promise me. Do so, and I shall apologize for our transgressions.”
The White Righteousness Sect Leader faltered briefly.
A faint bewilderment crossed his face.
Because Baek Mu-ryang uttered words contrary to his expectations.
If the Baek Clan Lord meekly apologizes and withdraws, that's a problem.
It would fail to halt the Baek Clan's expansion in Namchang, rooted in Yeongnak Street.
We can't demand they abandon Yeongnak Street either. Whatever the backing, the business is run by Baek Book Merchant Group and that cur Yeo Gu-wi.
In other words, from the White Righteousness Sect's standpoint, pressing to a direct clash was the optimal path.
Settling it with their far superior force would be clean and yield the greatest gains.
Thus, the Sect Leader retorted.
“...Promise? What promise. Our sect will act when the time comes. At the most fitting moment for the purge.”
“I see. So you have no intention of clearing out the black path tyrants.”
Baek Mu-ryang's gaze turned to Yang-hui.
His precious eldest son, who had orchestrated the entire picture and laid the board to draw him here.
Hui-ah, what do you desire?
In truth, he already knew.
That his role was the finishing stroke on the dragon.
That all of it was for the Baek Clan's glory.
However.
Hui said the black path gangs' disturbance resulted from the White Righteousness Sect's schemes.
If so, was the common folk's suffering and pain the Baek Clan's fault?
Had the Baek Clan's greed led to the common folk's harm?
The White Righteousness Sect that mobilized the black paths. Our clan that sparked it. Is there meaning in quibbling over righteousness?
Baek Mu-ryang recalled his late father.
He reminisced the old tales, told with him on his knee as a child.
“For generations, Jiangnan was overrun by black paths, a land where common folk suffered. Thus, our ancestors settled in Jiangxi and proclaimed the clan's founding.”
Admirers of the then-world's greatest gathered like clouds under the words righteousness and chivalry, uniting as one. The world called them Gaecheon Baekga, or the Baek Clan.
But.
“Bamboo too straight breaks. Even with deep roots, reeds endure storms ancient trees cannot. Such is the world's way. Our clan fell.”
Fallen and collapsed.
Because it refused compromise in the name of righteousness.
Because it refused to bend in the name of chivalry.
“Mu-ryang-ah. The reason our clan declined... was that people no longer needed us.”
Not seen as necessary, the clan did not grow.
Never ceasing aid to the pitiful depleted their mountain of wealth.
They say a tower of three years' labor crumbles in an instant.
Those weary of the overly rigid traditions departed the clan.
Those fearing the waning house sought their own survival.
Yes.
The reason the once-vaunted top-five clan, Baekga, had declined.
The truth handed down solely to the clan lord.
“Our clan. The Baek Clan. Declined because it would not bend before righteousness and chivalry.”
Thus, such doubts were inevitable.
What is true righteousness!
It led to ruin in pursuit—must it truly be followed without a single bend!
Before being a man of righteousness, I am clan lord. I must bear responsibility for those who follow me.
However.
Could he compromise on righteousness and remain honorable?
Could he be paper pure white, without a speck of black?
If stained with ash and ink.
What meaning remains in paper that can no longer be called white?
I don't know. I don't know.
So he closed his eyes and felt the sword gripped in his hand.
Sometimes, martial artists—swordsmen—leave such words.
The sword's cry.
The sound a sword makes when it sings holds the conviction of its wielder.
Click!
Flicking his thumb, the blade emerged an inch from the scabbard.
Baek Mu-ryang drew it fully, prompting the astonished White Righteousness Sect Leader to shout.
“What do you think you're doing! Do you dare oppose our sect!”
“Over a hundred have already drawn blades before their clan lord, yet do not rise and fall over trifling words. A true leader must embody the virtue of the center.”
Rendering the White Righteousness Sect Leader speechless as if honeyed, Baek Mu-ryang simply regarded his own sword.
The clan lord's blade, forged by the clan's master smith Baek Cheol from hundred-lotus purified steel.
The pristine white blade quivered faintly.
As if it had words to say.
-Kiiiiiaaaaa!
He closed his eyes and listened to the sword's voice.
He heeded the faint whisper in his heart.
Was the black path disturbance the reason... or the goal?
What did I, our clan, come to Namchang for?
The answer flowed forth easily.
No—it had been set from the beginning.
Sorry though it was to his eldest son, eyes shining as he watched from afar.
Baek Mu-ryang possessed his unshakeable path as clan lord.
“I ask you all.”
Those Baek Mu-ryang regarded were the common folk, clustered in groups, watching this way with their varied emotions.
“If any among you needs the Baek Clan's aid, speak.”
“None! No one does—cease your drivel!”
Unlike the White Righteousness Sect Leader's bold assurance, one man cautiously raised his hand.
By his shabby garb, a middle-aged fellow whose life was surely one of hardship.
The family breadwinner, who if stripped even of a day's wage by black path thugs, could not feed his kin.
Fearing the Sect Leader's reprisal, yet for his family, he opened his mouth.
“P-please... help us, milord.”
“...”
“I can't sleep from the fear... Please help us...”
That sufficed.
“With pleasure.”
As the White Righteousness Sect Leader's face contorted, Baek Mu-ryang's calm voice rang through the air.
“Pursuing righteousness thrust our bloodline onto a path of hardship. Our ancestors were truly foolish. But I too am a Baek.”
-Kiiiiiaaaaa!
Sword's cry. The sword unleashes its song bearing its master's conviction.
In harmony, the Baek Clan's members drew their swords as one.
“After long years, today—our clan proclaims anew, raising our banner for the common folk!”
The first to move in response to the proclamation was Yang-hui.
No lengthy words.
He needed none from the start.
He simply raised the sword-bearing hand in formal salute.
“By your command.”
Then came the thunderous chorus, like rolling peals.
“By your command!”
“By your command!”
“By your command!”
“This Gu vows ever to stand before the clan lord and cast off the days of old!”
Even Blood Lord Gu-ak could not contain his masculine heroic spirit upon beholding Baek Mu-ryang and bellowed forth.
Overcome with emotion, Baek Mu-ryang unwittingly turned to his adopted eldest son.
And.
The instant he saw Yang-hui's radiant smile, relief washed over him unbidden.
Joy surged.
The picture's final dot. The dragon's eye completed.
Blood may not connect them, but their wills did—gazing toward the same horizon.
“Have you lost your mind! Daring such ravings before our sect! You're truly unafraid of battle with us!”
The White Righteousness Sect Leader's desperate flailing continued.
But already crushed in momentum and will, it rang hollow as mere tantrum.
Even to his own sect disciples' ears.
“The Baek Clan's path is Gaecheon! Covering the heavens to bring peace to all beneath! For righteousness and chivalry, we bend not an inch—nor hesitate though it defy all reason!”
A leader must possess timber befitting the role.
Baek Mu-ryang and the White Righteousness Sect Leader were incomparable, from innate gifts honed to shine.
“Baek Clan brethren! Foes seek to bar our will! Shall we yield because they are many and mighty!”
“Unbroken!”
All roared they would not yield.
“Then this clan lord casts down the challenge!”
The gauntlet thrown, resounding from Namchang, Jiangxi's heart.
“This moment, the Baek Clan Lord reclaims the name: Gaecheon Baekga!”
The path they tread: Gaecheon! Wings spread above the masses, shading them in chivalry's way!
“Namchang's common folk cry for our aid! Members of Gaecheon Baekga, render relief—I command it!”
“By your command!”
“By your command!”
“By your command!”
Truly chivalry incarnate, unyielding spirit unbroken.
To the assembled common folk, Gaecheon Baekga was
the white path martial clan's ideal they'd dreamed in vain.
In stark contrast, the White Righteousness Sect.
“White Righteousness Sect disciples! Subdue the villains daring infringe our banner with paltry excuses!”
With the Sect Leader's frantic cry, his disciples surged forward as one.
Unlike the Baek Clan Lord at the vanguard, the Sect Leader lingered at the rear.
Thus, the two sects, wills opposed, stood poised to clash.
“Postpone the decisive battle between Gaecheon Baekga and White Righteousness Sect!”
A lion's roar shaking heaven and earth, and one man revealed himself.
Behind him stood twenty warriors, unmistakably peak-realm masters.
“Waryong Clan's Young Master, Peerless Waryong, puts it to you!”
Zhuge Clan's Young Master Zhuge Seon roared anew.
“Where's my daughter!!!”