The situation was difficult to read.

Seo Woojin scanned the area for any presence. Nothing registered on his senses. He looked to Muk-yeong, who also shook his head.

‘Not a trap. What on earth is he up to?’

Baek Gyeong’s face was ashen. Dust clung to the white robes in patches, and blood had gathered at his forehead.

Thud.

He drove his head into the ground again.

‘That doesn’t look like something he started a moment ago.’

However much of a warrior he might be, spending days like that would be no easy thing. So what was he enduring that pain for?

Waiting any longer was pointless. Seo Woojin signaled Muk-yeong to hold, then stepped out into the open before them.

“Who’s there!”

One of the warriors standing behind the clan head bristled with wariness. There was a fear in his voice he couldn’t name.

Seo Woojin looked them over without answering.

Then Baek Gyeong, who had been pressing his forehead to the ground, slowly lifted his head.

“Have you come from the Alliance?”

Looking into his eyes, Seo Woojin read an unshakeable resolve at odds with the exhaustion.

He nodded.

“I have.”

A bitter smile touched Baek Gyeong’s mouth.

“So that information was true.”

“You knew I was coming?”

“I did.”

“Did you also hear why I’ve come?”

“I heard.”

“Then how am I meant to interpret what I’m looking at right now?”

Baek Gyeong drew a deep breath.

THUD!

And drove his head into the ground.

“What the Alliance investigated is true. We falsified our income and deliberately reduced the taxes owed to the Alliance. I acknowledge the embezzlement.”

Seo Woojin didn’t let it show, but he was more than a little thrown.

Just as expected, the man had learned Seo Woojin was coming — and instead of taking up a blade, he was confessing his crime.

Could this too be a scheme to lower his guard?

“I know the punishment for embezzlement is execution. I will accept my punishment without resistance. But do not lay a hand on my family and my household. I will surrender the clan’s entire fortune as well. Only spare their lives. If you do that…… I will gladly offer my neck.”

He was dignified. For a man who had committed a crime.

Seo Woojin studied Baek Gyeong with a cold eye, then looked over the faces of the warriors.

Unlike Baek Gyeong, their expressions carried a fierce, seething anger.

‘The Alliance’s punishment is annihilation of the clan. If only the clan head’s life is taken, someone will certainly raise an objection.’

Seo Woojin shook his head slightly.

‘This can’t be confined to the test. I need to look at this from a wider view.’

The most powerful clan in Ningbo. And yet they hold to neutrality.

Is there anyone who profits if they die?

Is there anything to be gained if they live?

His mind began turning rapidly.

Just as the people of the Baek Clan began looking at him with questioning eyes, Seo Woojin spoke.

“I understand what you’re saying. Why don’t we go inside for now? It sounds like there’s a great deal I need to hear.”

Baek Gyeong’s steady eyes wavered slightly. He clearly hadn’t expected those words.

Seo Woojin turned to the warriors standing behind him.

“What are you doing? Help your master up.”

“Ah! Ah, yes!”

Only then did the Baek Clan’s warriors move to support their clan head.

And Seo Woojin’s mind was still working furiously.

A short while later, Seo Woojin and Muk-yeong were able to face Baek Gyeong again in the Baek Clan’s main hall.

Everyone else had been dismissed, so the room was quite still.

Trickle. Clink.

Baek Gyeong poured tea into both their cups. Properly dressed now, his ashen complexion looked considerably better. The wound on his forehead remained.

“Please, drink.”

Seo Woojin smiled faintly and slid the cup away.

“My apologies. I came inside because I judged that a conversation was necessary — but I’m still on my guard.”

He had just made clear that he didn’t trust Baek Gyeong. The man took it calmly.

“A sound judgment. They said you were the Alliance Lord’s son — you’re rather prudent, aren’t you.”

Baek Gyeong let out a quiet breath, then drained his own tea. And looked at Seo Woojin.

“What is it you want to hear.”

Seo Woojin thought for a moment, then asked directly.

“Why did you embezzle?”

“……”

Baek Gyeong kept his silence.

Seo Woojin nodded and spoke again.

“Let me explain your situation first. Of a clan that has embezzled, all direct-line members are to be executed. The remaining members are subject to the executor’s judgment. However, the clan’s assets must be confiscated. That is what I am required to do.”

“……I know.”

“And even if I soften and let the matter rest with only the clan head’s life, the Alliance will eventually send someone to finish the Baek Clan’s punishment.”

“……”

“But I’ve become rather curious.”

Baek Gyeong, who had been looking down, lifted questioning eyes to him.

Seo Woojin held a faint smile as he continued.

“What on earth could a clan of this size hope to gain by embezzling? Ningbo is a port city — no small amount of money must pass through it. And the Baek Clan is the foremost clan in Ningbo, so your standing can hardly be minor. Your clan faces annihilation over mere embezzlement, and yet the clan head, far from mounting a last stand, is trying to trade his own life for his family’s.”

He saw Baek Gyeong’s body flinch.

Seo Woojin’s smile deepened.

“Well? Doesn’t that make me curious? And if that penitent kneeling was calculated to achieve exactly that — then I’d say your scheme worked.”

“……It is not a scheme.”

Seo Woojin shook his head.

“It is a scheme. You said you knew I was coming here, didn’t you? Which is why you were already doing that before I arrived. Predicting that a man raised in the Murim Alliance wouldn’t be able to look at such a sight with cold eyes.”

“……”

“If another candidate had come, you’d likely have resolved on a last stand.”

Baek Gyeong, who had listened in silence, let out a deep sigh.

“To see through even my paltry calculations. What more is there for me to say? Make your decision, young master. If there is pity and mercy in your heart, then let my life cover this matter. And if there is not……”

“If there is not?”

“Shameless as it is — then from this moment I would have to resolve on a last stand.”

Seo Woojin let out a small laugh.

Of everyone he had met in the Dark Path so far, this was the plainest, most straightforward man.

“Then we’ve come back to the beginning. Tell me. Why did you embezzle? If you mean to stir the pity and mercy in my heart, you’d best make it as long and detailed as possible.”

Baek Gyeong hesitated a moment — then slowly began to speak.

And a long, detailed story came pouring out.

After hearing everything Baek Gyeong had to say, Seo Woojin and Muk-yeong went to the quarters the Baek Clan had prepared. He had given only the answer that he would think on it for a while.

Even after reaching the quarters, Seo Woojin continued turning it over for a long time.

Something about Baek Gyeong’s story sat wrong with him.

The circumstances themselves weren’t extraordinary. Among his many children was a youngest daughter. The first daughter he had ever had, and therefore the child Baek Gyeong cherished most.

But regrettably, the girl had been born with a chronic illness.

The Heart Vein Cold-Fall Affliction that Mun Seok had mentioned.

Easing its symptoms required Vein-Moistening Grass.

Fortunately, the Baek Clan had ample means, and since Vein-Moistening Grass grew in Zhejiang, that had been one less worry. She would have to drink a decoction containing the herb for the rest of her life — but her life could be preserved.

Then, half a year ago, the Vein-Moistening Grass vanished as though by some trick.

They had stockpiled some in advance, thankfully. But the anxiety of suddenly losing his daughter’s lifeline could not have been small.

Baek Gyeong dispatched people across all of Zhejiang to make inquiries — and eventually traced where the Vein-Moistening Grass had gone.

[Vein-Moistening Grass grows on a place called Red Damp Mountain, near Wuyi. The soil is red and warmth permeates the entire mountain. Someone purchased that mountain, and claimed ownership of everything produced within it.]

The same as Mun Seok’s information.

Baek Gyeong had made inquiries about the mountain’s buyer while simultaneously searching for the herb elsewhere. He’d finally found another place it was cultivated — but it was in Yunnan, so he’d had no choice but to give up. The herb would obviously wither on the journey from Yunnan.

And while he was caught between one impossibility and the next——

Someone approached him.

[It was a man sent by the Bonghwa Jang Clan, seated in Bonghwa. He informed me that they had purchased that mountain.]

A hollow laugh escaped him.

That they had disclosed that fact at all meant, plainly, that they had bought the mountain for the sole purpose of the Baek Clan.

[They made demands. Would I pay an excessive price for the herb? Or…… would I come under their banner?]

This was the point.

The Jang Clan of Bonghwa.

They had some scale to them, but compared to the Clear Water Baek Clan they were nothing. They were said to be growing their power lately — but still nowhere near enough to make a statement like that to the Baek Clan.

[There is someone behind them. A mere Jang Clan could neither purchase that mountain nor speak to us with such insolence. My guess is the Cheon Clan or the Gok Clan…… but I could not be certain. Even so, coming under their banner was not a choice I could make. My daughter’s life is precious to me — and so are the subordinates who trust and follow me. I could not permit my own selfishness to reduce my men to slaves.]

And so Baek Gyeong had paid the excessive price and bought the herb.

He paid whatever they demanded, and — hard as it was to believe — within half a year, the clan’s fortune had been all but drained. Enough that he had finally touched the Alliance’s taxes.

‘This part is strange too. From that point on, the Baek Clan’s businesses began to falter. Which drained their finances even faster. That means someone intervened……’

But no trace of it had ever been found.

‘Clan Head Baek’s guess is probably right. The Cheon Clan or the Gok Clan. Only they could block the Baek Clan’s appeals to the Alliance. And only they could bankroll the Jang Clan on that scale.’

Baek Gyeong hadn’t simply sat still and taken it. He had petitioned the Dark Alliance for arbitration several times — and every one had been buried.

Which meant someone had cut off the Baek Clan’s voice.

And later, once the Alliance Lord died, that voice would have reached even less far.

‘Then they gave up on the Baek Clan. So they put them forward as a test subject. Because no matter how much pressure was applied, they wouldn’t come over.’

Seo Woojin let out a quiet breath.

If someone directed malice at you without your ever knowing, could you possibly prepare for it?

What the Baek Clan had faced was, quite literally, a natural disaster.

‘Did they recognize the Baek Clan’s value too? Or……’

While he was still turning it over, Muk-yeong tapped the table.

He looked up, and Muk-yeong’s hands moved rapidly.

— Are you thinking of letting them live?

Seo Woojin nodded without hesitation.

Muk-yeong immediately objected.

— You’ll lose more than you gain. No — more to the point, you don’t have the strength to protect them, Young Lord.

A rather blunt assessment.

Seo Woojin smiled ruefully.

“You’re right. I’m still weak, so I can’t guarantee I’d be able to protect them completely.”

— Then why? Is there a reason worth abandoning the test itself?

Seo Woojin thought for a moment.

Should he show Muk-yeong what he was really thinking?

Seo Woojin, by nature, didn’t trust people. That was the result of his grandfather’s relentless conditioning, and it wasn’t something he could simply set aside.

‘But I have to make these people mine.’

Spending so much time with the Four Black Dragons had driven the point home. Having people like that at your side was more reassuring than anything.

Seo Woojin let out a quiet breath.

For now, he decided to believe what was in front of him.

Above those tightly closed lips — the deep worry in Muk-yeong’s eyes.

“That’s exactly why I’m going to save the Baek Clan.”

Muk-yeong’s brow furrowed. He didn’t immediately follow.

Seo Woojin put it more plainly.

“Because I have no power of my own, I’m going to save the Baek Clan. Save them, and make them my power.”

“……!!”

He had felt it the moment he walked through Ningbo and arrived at the Baek Clan.

The strength these people held was anything but small.

The wealth of a region like Ningbo.

Warriors who follow their clan head with their hearts.

A clan head with a plain, upright character.

If he could bring them under him, Seo Woojin would have a faction of his own.

Weak for now, certainly — but a faction that existed for him alone.

Neutrals, belonging to no faction at all.

If he began with the Baek Clan and absorbed them one by one——

Seo Woojin would not become the Woon Clan’s puppet.

And he would be able to stand against the Cheon and Gok Clans’ cruelty.

Something cold gleamed in Seo Woojin’s eyes.

“I’ll have to take them. In order to survive.”

Seo Woojin no longer saw the Baek Clan as merely a test subject.

He was beginning to see further.

To see the whole board.

(End of Chapter 26)