On another grey day in the Wawrika province, a big fat man, almost as wide as a double door, was sitting at the table in a an opulent room.
The large room was painted blue with pictures of mountains hanging on the wall behind him, the wall to his left was bare, and to the right, a copper statue of a naked woman gone a little green with atmospheric oxidization was mounted half way up.
The room was filled with stone colored expensive furniture, the fat man had two shy looking under-aged girls scantily dressed sat at his side, they dared not touch a single morsel of food on the table. The man whose neck couldn't be seen separate from his chin, which roiled like the waves of the sea with every movement he made, had a white food-stained napkin stuck to his chest as he gobbled down a table of full of delicacies pig-style using his hands.
Four or five children dressed in tattered robes sat on the floor to the side, gulping down their saliva as they watched the well dressed man with wide eyes, rubbing their hands to keep warm on the stone floor. The fat man groaned in delight, swallowing mouthful after mouthful of food.
"How much?"
He asked a blond haired young man about seventeen who stood patiently before the table.
With a nervous tremor the boy answered.
"Sir, we've had some trouble with some strangers, they took the package and told us to tell you they are coming for a meeting today."
"WHAT!" The wide eyed fat man stood up suddenly, the table flipped over from his sudden movements, the two girls by his side scrambled back in fright, all the food on the table spilled out in all direction causing an abstract mural of food stains on the pristine concrete floor.
The man was a 1st layer xiantian...or had been, who knows if he could even jog at this point... obviously he had taken the first step to immortality and could still crush mortals with a slap of his fat clammy hands.
He was controlling this small crime guild and paying off a few of the local guards. He had gained this position which he used to eat himself into deathly obesity, and molested the orphan girls.
"You worthless trash, why the hell am I paying you? Why is this person's head not on a platter before me?"
He raised his hand to back-hand slap the boy stood in front of him.
The door of the building opened slowly as a voice sounded out in the room.
"Stop, any injuries inflicted on my subordinates shall be returned ten folds," looks of surprise was evident on the children's faces, there heads turned to gaze upon the black haired stranger. The fat man stopped his actions midway, eyeing up the intruder, evaluating the threat level.
The fat man had loved the lavish living the profits from his small crime guild had brought him over the years, but he was smart enough to keep the building which housed his headquarters in a poor neighborhood, keeping the outside just as unremarkable as the others around it.
The fear of the strong predators in the eco-system of the criminal world was enough for him to not even venture outside and show off his ill gotten wealth.
"You dare?" the guild master shouted as the fat on his body jiggled in concert.
"You have two choices" said the stranger, "you can stay and be a secretary, overseeing my guild or you can just die right here right now."
There were hushed conversations from the children present, they had never seen anyone talk to the guild master in such a manner.
"I have connections in the city guard, you won't last a day if you go against me," said the fat man.
The stranger let out raucous laughter before bringing himself to answer.
"You actually think the city guards care about you? as long as the bribes keep coming they won't care who is in charge, in fact i might just double the bribes and have them butcher you for me."
The experienced fat man had survived many winters by bullying the weak and pledging allegiance to the strong, patiently waiting and serving without judgment whoever it was that had come to power.
In his former more powerful guild he had done exactly the same before breaking away from the north under disguise and starting his own little band in the south, where he could satisfy his lust and greed. This guild was precious to him, but he could still play the long strategic game if needs be.
"Ryu Hang!" he shouted. "Kill him!"
The wily fat man was sending up Ryu as a guinea pig to test the true strength of the stranger, the intruder looked like a mortal youth, but his cautiousness would never allow him to be callous.
He didn't survive the things he'd survived without wits, if the youth had impressive strength he would just pledge his loyalty to the stranger, sit back and wait for his chance to stab him in the back.
He would do anything it took to regain rightful control of what he had built up over these years.
The look on the handsome stranger's face darkened as he read the fat man's intention like a book.
"I had planned on letting you live and run the guild as my secretary because I have no interest in running the day to day operations of a guild, but I can see your cowardly sinister side, the weeds have to be cut from the roots and so I have changed my mind."
Ryu Hang, the blonde lanky youth stood there conflicted, if he didn't act and the stranger was defeated by the guild master he would be in for painful torture at the hands of the guild master in the upcoming days, and if the man could defeat the guild master then he would no doubt be killed in the confrontation.
"Do you know the daily operations of the guild?" the stranger turned to Ryu Hang who was distracted in thoughts.
"Ye.. Yes sir" he answered while guiltily glancing at the guild master.
Rage...unfiltered rage roiled up in the stomach of the guild master.
"You fucking traitor!" He shouted with froth forming at the sides of his lips, addressing the youth across the overturned table.. He raised his right hand which now had a dull brown color glowing around it, and attempted to kill the youth with one blow. The youth raised his hands in a futile defense, sensing his end.
Then like a sorcerer, the stranger had multiplied into two, one was in front the lanky blond hair youth and the other was right there still standing at the entrance, the after-image of the handsome youth at the door then slowly evaporated like plumes of smoke. The wide eyed children had never seen anything like this before, they stared on with their little mouths agape.
Crack!
A simple punch then effortlessly landed on the helpless fat man's chest, it sent him crashing through the wall behind him, and without losing any momentum, he flew across the bedroom pass dozens of pitiful girls, lying in rags, or naked, most of them likely in the same spot the fat man had molested them that morning, he rifled through the wall which led to the back courtyard of the house where he crashed to a rolling stop on the snow covered pavement, cracking three or four of the exquisite concrete tiles laid on the floor.
He croaked his last breath and went still.
There was a deafening silence as the children stared at the stranger who looked no older than Ryu Hang. "Get his space ring" the stranger instructed Ryu Hang, who was brought back to reality.
"Yes sir" he said as he skipped to the first order of the new guild master.