Three people sat behind a table in a lavish bedroom on the second floor of the headquarters of the now named Rikers guild. Qin Li had given the new name to the guild, Hartley didn't know why or what the name meant but he didn't care. Qin LI obviously sat beside Hartley and Zhi Ruo as Ryu Hang introduced the other two captains.
After hearing how the fat guild master was dispatched with the flick of a wrist, they had immediately fallen in line. Their situation in the guild was very privileged compared to the others, so they would be the last to rebel or have any objections to the new guild master as it was in their best interest to keep the status quo.
"This is Biyu Jie," Ryu Hang introduced a pretty young woman who greeted Hartley with a blushing and enchanting smile before saying "Welcome guild master". "She is the one in charge of our brothels and the pick pockets," this was considered in the guild to be the most inconsequential position as everyone knew how she came to this position .... Zhi Ruo now dressed in a black elegant leather long dress which hugged her body, revealing her curves, looked at the young woman who stood there day dreaming. Through squinted eyes she sized up Biyu Jie before turning her eyes to look at Hartley's reaction. Hartley nodded his head and turned his eyes back to Ryu Hang without paying the pretty blonde young woman any attention. This pleased Zhi Ruo as she huffed under breath with discontent at the young woman obviously trying to flirt with Hartley right in front of her face.
Biyu Jie was a very experienced guild member who had survived in this harsh environment while remaining single which was unthinkable in the underground world of crime. Women usually latched themselves to one of the stronger men in their guild for protection, kept their heads low and hoped for the best. Biyu had avoided that, she was much more ambitious than most and she had done and was willing to do anything it took to survive and gain the power she desired. She had placed herself in the good books of the fat guild master and obtained her current position by often visiting his bed chambers at his request at night.
She looked at Hartley with bright eyes as she sensed a great opportunity to further consolidate and promote her standing within the guild, if she could get close to Hartley who was a much more desirable man than the stomach churning former guild master, she could make use of the unspeakable shameful acts the former guild master had asked her to perform at nights that he had enjoyed so much.
She might, in pleasing Hartley as much as she had pleased the former guild master, achieve her goal of being the most powerful subordinate in the guild. She justified it to herself as only using the assets she was blessed with and thought herself one of the lucky ones. She had willingly been taken countless times by the fat slob but the other younger girls would wail in pain as the guild master took them and they had nothing to show for it in the end, she consoled herself knowing that she had gained some power out of her ordeal and set her eyes on Hartley.
Ryu Hang proceeded with the introduction of the middle age man stood beside him. "This is Wan He, he is the one responsible for enforcing the will of our guild in the region, mobilize our stronger members to defend from or attack other guilds and collect the outstanding debts owed to the guild when someone refused to pay." The black haired middle age man sporting a few wrinkles at the corner of his dark eyes, who was the same height as Hartley with wide sturdy shoulders, bowed respectfully at the handsome youth sat across the table. "This one greets the new guild master he said." Hartley nodded and said nothing.
Wang He was at the peak of the houtian realm and had fought his way up to this position showing some wisdom and at times applying merciless strong arm tactics. A former soldier in another province, he had trained to the hard to achieve peak of houtian but didn't manage to find enlightenment and step across the line of immortality. He would have been a useful soldier but his prospects in the army was stunted by his inability to become a xiantian expert, he would forever be a foot-soldier so he had returned to his home town and settled down, making a name for himself as someone who should not be messed with. He was then recruited by the xiantian expert who ran this small guild and was given a high position and paid handsomely.
After the introduction Hartley looked at Qin Li and asked "So what's our next move? I will not be as involved in the running and will leave you to make most of the major decisions as it pertains to the guild. Me and Zhi Ruo's time will be spent mostly cultivating in preparations fro the next leg of our journey." Qin Li looked at the captains then after a moment he said. "First we swallow up the other small crime guilds in our vicinity, then we establish a network of spies, using the former pickpockets... Wan He interjected immediately. "It's not wise to unite the small guilds, the reason why guilds like these choose and operate within a certain limited area is because it won't attract more attention from the local guards and stir up the criminal underground because one who can unite a certain amount of guilds will be seen as a powerful threat to the more powerful guilds and they will not allow such a threat to grow unhindered." "Hmmm" Qin li hummed while scratching his chin in deep thought. "Which is the strongest guild in our vicinity" Hartley asked.
Ryu Hang answered. "The Roving Wasps, they are based about a hundred kilometers to our north, they control the merchants and the trade routes into the north, if one wants to do business with the northern section of the province they have to pay a tax to the Roving Wasps to move their goods safely along the roads leading to and from the north."
"Perfect! then we just take over the Roving Wasps and insert one of our people to control it."
Hartley said this as if it was easy as A B C, the three captains looked at each with bulging eyes while shaking their heads, the youth was strong but he was certainly inexperienced in the underworld, they uniformly had this thought.
"Sir I know you must be a xiantian expert but the Roving wasps also have xiantian experts..Three to be precise, it would cost a lot of our men if we were to go up against them, even if we won we would be too weakened and would be ripe for the picking when other guilds find out." Wang He said this in a quick hurried manor as if he was trying to save Hartley from making an arrogant mistake.
Hartley waved his hands casually and replied, "no need to worry."
By the time the reddish winter sun was declining over the horizon the next day, dead men and pieces of dead men dripped blood onto the snow, the remnants of a vicious and gory battle were strewn before a lavish manor, the atmosphere within the usually lively manor was deathly silent.
The two huge gates leading into the manor were closed and a twenty meter wall snaked around the property blocking out the prying eyes of neighbors and passer byes.
All the men still alive within the walls of the manor had thrown their weapons to the ground and knelt with one knee pressed into the snowy ground, they faced the four story stone structure which had statues of lion-like beasts crouched in an attack posture on both sides of the path leading into the manor in obedient reverence.
The kneeling men had looks of disbelief and reverie as they all gazed upon the two people stood in front of the manor, one holding the still dripping decapitated head of the xiantian expert who was their now dead guild master, the youth stood there majestically wearing a dark robe with not one single blemish.
The other was an older looking man dressed in a similar robe who stood a couple paces behind the young blue eyed youth holding the gruesome trophy away from his body so the dripping blood wouldn't tarnish his garments.
"Open the gates."
Two men got up and scurried to adhere to the order of the youth. After invading the manor like phantoms in the shadows, instead of sneaking into the manor and assassinating the occupants, the youth and his companion had stood at the entrance and called out the the guild master.
The men had quickly gathered around to defend the manor leaving no escape route for the intruders, they witnessed the older man duel with their guild master to a stalemate, then the other two xiantians in the guild joined forces with the guild master to eliminate the threat of the older man.
That was when the unassuming youth stepped forward and sliced all three to ribbons, staining the snow covered ground with globs of blood and body parts. The most loyal members of the guild rushed forward to avenge the guild master and were sliced by the youth as easy as slicing vegetables leaving a maelstrom of body parts and blood laying on the snow.
After that, the will to fight was non existent from the other members, they all fell to one knee with pale faces and quickly pledged allegiance to the unbelievably strong youth in the hopes of not offending such a monster and praying to the Holy Matriarch that he wouldn't wipe out the whole guild.
The gates opened and about a dozen people walked in under the setting sun which lighted the up the bloody splotches on the white snow covered surroundings in a yellowish glow, once they too got a glance at the scene their mouths hung open at the sight of the kneeling guild members and the decapitated flesh lying on the snow stained red.
Among the people Zhi Ruo made her way over to the side of Hartley and lovingly checked over him, then took her place at his side.
Biyu Jie eyes glistened with envy as she and the other captains stood and waited for their orders.