Chapter 535

The merchants left.

Watching their dejected backs, Tang Ha-ran asked Jin Ja-gang.

“Will it be okay?”

“It won’t be okay.”

Jin Ja-gang made a subtle expression.

“Their greed, the greed of those working under them, and the greed of jianghu aligned with their interests… everything combined created the current situation. All of them are my enemies. I was thinking of hunting them down and killing them even if it took a lifetime.”

“I’ll be honest. Even if you kill a hundred people a day, you won’t be able to kill as many as you want in your lifetime. Rather, the number you’ll have to kill will keep increasing because of those seeking revenge on you, right?”

“That’s right. Realistically, the limit of revenge I could achieve was until the moment I killed the Hungry Ghost King. However, if there’s even one person who rejoices that my blade of revenge didn’t reach them, it would eat at me.”

Tang Ha-ran burst out laughing.

“Right. That’s the kind of person you are. You can’t stand seeing those who didn’t pay the price they should have paid enjoying themselves.”

Jin Ja-gang also turned to Tang Ha-ran and smiled faintly.

“So from now on, I’ll try to solve it through the task left to me.”

Jin Ja-gang inherited Taoist Haewol’s will. That was Jin Ja-gang’s task.

Jin Ja-gang continued speaking while gazing toward the merchants who were now almost out of sight.

“The Unbreakable Heavenly Sword is cornered. After the Great Buddha died, Shaolin lost its driving force and stopped, causing the Righteous Alliance to also peter out. He held a martial arts tournament to break through the impasse where he could neither advance nor retreat, but he ruined that himself.”

“The Unbreakable Heavenly Sword is insane. Massacring all the top masters of each sect to make you a public enemy of the martial world.”

“That’s why he went into seclusion. He’s thinking of creating a movement in jianghu to have himself elevated to Martial Alliance Leader, covering up the bad rumors. Then it’ll become much easier to ascend to Martial Alliance Leader.”

“Then tell me what you’ll do now.”

“Divine Nun In-eun once asked me whether the target of my revenge was an individual, a group, or a system.”

Tang Ha-ran also knew this story.

“Your answer was the system. I remember you said the system changes people.”

“But even if we change the system, there will still be people who won’t change. And the Unbreakable Heavenly Sword will try to rally them and make another leap.”

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes became intense.

“At that time, those who owe me a debt, the merchant world and jianghu, will have to prove themselves to me. Those who fail to prove themselves, no matter how many years it takes, I will kill them all. The only reason they could leave this place alive today was for that one purpose.”

Tang Ha-ran firmly grasped Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

And said quietly.

“Please, I hope they prove themselves before that. Because I want you to stay by my side.”

* * *

The great merchants couldn’t even walk properly.

No one spoke throughout the return journey.

The trembling wouldn’t stop.

That feeling of receiving a death sentence from the Poison Dragon was something they probably wouldn’t forget even in death.

Today, since you came by invitation from our family’s acting head, I will let you live. However, next time you meet me, it will be different.

And with those words, he let them go.

The great merchants kept replaying Jin Ja-gang’s last words in their minds, shuddering each time.

In truth, Jin Ja-gang could have killed them on the spot. But he deliberately let them live.

“Just because the acting family head invited them?”

When they had almost passed Sichuan, one of the great merchants muttered.

“Why didn’t he kill us? Is it confidence that he can kill us anytime?”

Another responded as if talking to himself.

“No, if it were me, I would have just killed us on the spot. He could have fed us poison that would kill in a month or a year. But he didn’t do that. Saying he’ll travel all over the Central Plains later to find and kill us one by one? He’ll do such a troublesome thing?”

After a moment of silence, someone said with emphasis.

“Even the mighty Poison Dragon couldn’t touch us. He didn’t have confidence to handle the aftermath of touching us, so he canceled the promissory note payment and just let us go!”

However, after saying it, even he seemed to find it strange and quickly closed his mouth.

Strange. The more they thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Even…

“Why didn’t the Poison Dragon demand anything from us? Even the Tang Family didn’t? From the beginning, they didn’t say a word about discounting the promissory notes. Everything came from our mouths.”

The great merchants looked at each other with incomprehensible faces.

Baek Li-jung demanded much money as payment for helping them. Not just Baek Li-jung, but other sects were the same. Putting on good faces for transactions and threatening behind their backs was countless.

“Or… from the very beginning…”

Did they really call them to process the promissory notes without involving profit and loss?

It was difficult for the great merchants to understand, but under Tang Ha-ran’s regime, the Tang Family had already done the same thing without considering profit and loss.

Previously, when the Demon Cult and Northern Heaven fought over salt, because Baek Li-jung raised the justification of being for the civilians, the Tang Family paid the full cost of the lost salt.

That was why the Tang Family’s finances had deteriorated and they were now struggling.

“…”

The great merchants had much to think about. It wasn’t complicated.

They just had to acknowledge one thing.

That the Poison Dragon wasn’t a blood-crazed murderer as they thought, but an upright person who valued procedural justification.

If they acknowledged just that, all current doubts would be resolved.

It would also explain why they weren’t killed at the Tang Family. If someone is properly sane, they wouldn’t harm guests they invited to their home.

Unlike Baek Li-jung.

“Perhaps…”

The chief merchant of Huizhou Merchant House said.

“Perhaps the Great Slaughter Star Poison Dragon is an unparalleled righteous person of jianghu.”

One who kills many people can’t simply be called evil. Even if you kill one person, if it’s for your own profit and pleasure, you’re evil; if it’s for a great cause, you’re righteous.

The great merchants unconsciously nodded their heads, then were startled to realize they were thinking like the chief merchant of Huizhou Merchant House.

However, if they acknowledged that, their thoughts would become even more complicated.

Not just fear about their future, but also relationships with Baek Li-jung, and relationships with jianghu martial sects…

There were many issues to address.

“Perhaps.”

Borrowing the chief merchant’s manner of speech, the head of Jiangsu Merchant House said.

“Perhaps it would have been better to die there…”

The great merchants all smiled bitterly.

Isn’t it said that cleaning up is harder than starting something? There might be things remaining that are harder than death.

Fortunately, what they believed was that they didn’t take away the promissory notes Jin Ja-gang collected as blood debt. If they had brought those back too, they would have been saddled with all of Wang Yeon’s past blood debts.

If Jin Ja-gang was someone who valued procedures, at least he wouldn’t try to take more than the debt the great merchants owed.

The great merchants pondered.

What should they do going forward to survive…

* * *

A strange current emerged in jianghu.

It started when the martial artists who went to the Tang Family due to the Yuelu Mountain incident returned to their own sects. Among them were not just ordinary martial artists but also quite a few from the Righteous Alliance.

They conveyed what they experienced at Yuelu Mountain and what they saw and heard at the Tang Family to their sects. Most didn’t believe it.

According to their words, the Baek Li Family massacre wasn’t done by the Poison Dragon but by Unbreakable Heavenly Sword Baek Li-jung.

It was absurd. That he committed such acts to make the Poison Dragon alone a public enemy of the martial world.

Even without committing such acts, wasn’t the Poison Dragon already treated almost like a public enemy in jianghu? Yet needing to go that far meant he lacked confidence to ascend to Martial Alliance Leader through his own reputation and virtue.

They couldn’t believe all the testimonies. However, as facts about merchants visiting the Tang Family and what Jin Ja-gang did in Dunhuang became secretly known, the atmosphere in jianghu changed considerably.

Many still wanted to believe in the Unbreakable Heavenly Sword. However, some who wanted to believe in Jin Ja-gang also emerged.

Confirming whether the Unbreakable Heavenly Sword’s seclusion was genuine or not was easy.

They just had to wait without acting.

Even if they didn’t actively step forward, just observing the situation and watching developments until Jin Ja-gang moved would allow them to grasp the truth.

* * *

Baek Li-jung maintained a relaxed attitude while being anxious from hunger.

If he just waited, the Poison Dragon would become the martial world’s public enemy and he would become Martial Alliance Leader. After that, he just had to sweep away the eyesore Poison Dragon and Sichuan and it would be over.

How much stronger would he become if he killed the Poison Dragon? Just thinking about it made him increasingly hungry and unable to bear it.

However, the way things were going didn’t particularly please him.

“Report.”

A Baek Li Family warrior answered nervously.

“Most of the Cherry Blossom Group was captured by Shaolin, and with Advisor Mang dead as their focal point, they’ve disintegrated, so it will be difficult to gather them like before.”

“The Righteous Alliance?”

“Well…”

The warrior said with difficulty.

“After Yuelu Mountain, they scattered… and… critically, there’s no one to oversee them…”

The Righteous Alliance warriors who saw Baek Li-jung at Yuelu Mountain were desperately hunted down and killed by the Baek Li Family. It was to silence them.

Countless others died fighting here and there while forming encirclement nets. Some were also swept up by Jin Ja-gang and fled while fighting their own side.

As a result, the number of Righteous Alliance warriors who could actually move decreased drastically.

To make matters worse, Baek Li-jung’s strategists who oversaw the Righteous Alliance died in an instant, leaving things in disarray without proper handover…

As Baek Li-jung’s expression kept crumpling, the warrior sweated profusely.

To make people elevate Baek Li-jung as Martial Alliance Leader, they needed those who would act in advance. But those who would do that work didn’t remain.

Baek Li-jung said as if spitting out.

“Didn’t I tell you previously that the merchant world agreed to help, so use those connections?”

It was a request to use merchant world connections to gather people who would elevate Baek Li-jung as Martial Alliance Leader.

The warrior’s face became drenched with sweat.

“Th, that’s…”

Baek Li-jung’s eyebrows rose.

“Stutter one more time and I’ll kill you.”

The warrior swallowed and spoke quickly.

“The merchant world’s response is a bit strange.”

“What?”

“They keep changing their words. Saying they were too busy to report to superiors… or they forgot… and they’re delaying.”

Baek Li-jung’s lips twisted.

“Impudent things not knowing their place… Not keeping promises made previously and reading the room?”

Baek Li-jung struck his thigh with his palm.

Thwack!

“Leave them and use the main family’s people! The Poison Dragon is already the martial world’s public enemy anyway! Without me, he won’t last long. Whether jianghu or the merchant world, they’ll soon kneel before me and beg me to become leader!”

“Yes!”

Baek Li-jung’s order was immediately delivered to the head of the Baek Li Family.

The head of the Baek Li Family mobilized all personnel of the family.

He gathered people through all kinds of connections. Then he persuaded people that they must rebuild the Murim Alliance as quickly as possible before the Poison Dragon gathered forces and entered the Central Plains. Emphasizing Baek Li-jung’s role, he spread a sense of crisis that if he wasn’t elevated to Martial Alliance Leader, great slaughter would begin in jianghu.

But jianghu’s response was lukewarm.

Without help from the merchant world, which had connections throughout the Central Plains, creating an atmosphere with only Baek Li Family personnel was very slow and difficult. Even many martial artists were reluctant to actively cooperate with the Baek Li Family.