The members of the blood sect made their way towards the village after receiving the information about the Bombyx family.
They brought extra people to spread out and surround the village while the other key members of the group slowly infiltrated the village over time.
In preparation for the invasion, the Bombyx family cancelled the carriage visits to the village so that they do not suffer from attacks during this time.
The men began to spread out around the village hiding among the forest area by the entrances and exits of the village.
Some of the members who infiltrated began to mingle with the villagers upon beginning to earn their trust to gain more information.
During the first day they managed to find a place to stay within a families barn.
The second day they began to gain the trust of the villagers while acting amiably towards them.
The forth day they began to tempt some people who looked like easy targets to establish power within the village.
The fifth day began a group of anti Bombyx family members, they were made up of villagers who were unhappy that the Bombyx family had the most control within the village.
The main family which had been pulled in and were part of the group were the villages family head.
The family head had long lead the other families within the village and had gotten a big head and felt superior to most because of their position.
They began to feel dissatisfied that they had to constantly check with the Bombyx family when there was a problem or they needed something.
In their hearts they began to believe that they could do anything the Bombyx family did within the village so we're easily tempted by the blood sect members.
There was an instant split among the village upon the fifth day thanks to this, there was an anti Bombyx faction with the head of the village as their leader who was supported by the blood sect behind the scenes and a pro Bombyx faction who did not wish to disrupt their happy daily lives.
Ki sat in her room after training while taking a sip of tea calmly. "
The source of evil is desire, greed, and anger. The land provides enough to satisfy everyones needs, but not everyone's greed. The villagers have everything they need to live their lives but there will always be those who believe that what they have is not enough. Their unsatisfied desires will lead to rash decisions and actions and lead them down a dark path. The blood sect specialise in recruiting those whose desires who are not satisfied and those whose anger or wrath has not been satisfied. Those who wish for vengeance are easy targets along with those who wish to climb higher."
She flipped through the information on the current events that had been collected by the spies within the village.
Some of those spies had also infiltrated the anti Bombyx faction so that Ki could gain more accurate information.
"The seven sins and virtues exist within all of humanity and there are the sins which are are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Excessive amounts of any of these can lead to dangerous behaviours and actions which could either harm themselves or others. Any of these that are triggered and encouraged to grow could be used by others, if I could identify the village head then he would be wrath, greed, envy and pride." Ki began to laugh at the information on the village head. "Pride can mean a need for public acceptance in all acts and a need to be more important than others. Those who suffer with Pride issues, usually fail to give due complements to others, but instead fish for complements for them selves. They find ways to be better than those around them and usually have a "One Up" story. As someone in the position as the village head everyone else in the village looks to them so these behaviours have been encouraged but with the Bombyx family to answer to in the end their pride is challenged which ignites their wrath, envy and greed."
"Some sects beliefs and martial arts practices are used to suppress or remove their desires in order to live healthy lives and to not fall into damnation." Ki continued to read the information. "Whether it is the 7 sins or virtues we should always remember to not live with either of these to an extreme in order to avoid bad habits and constantly resist temptations."
Marilyn nodded upon listening to her words. "So they are targeting these weaknesses of the villagers in order to turn them against the family. What would be examples of lust or sloth then?"
"Lust can be used on certain people who have been denied by someone they like. For example a man is chasing after a woman but the woman refuses. They can be tempted to act on their lust and ignore the feelings of the woman, once recruited they will act upon the woman to satisfy themselves without worrying about the consequences since they have a support to cover up their deeds. Try looking out for unmarried, married or even widowed ladies who are vulnerable within the village who could be targeted and try to protect them in secret as some villagers may fall for that temptation. If they are desperate enough they may even try to escape so provide them a place to stay during the crisis if they are targeted." Ki shook her head "Sloth would be an easy target for them to deal with among the villagers. Many families make a living diligently working every day to make a living but what about the temptation of being able to live a lazy life without worries? They no longer need to work hard in the fields and clean up animal droppings and they can instead make an immediate gain from taking away our families wealth which could cover their living expenses for the rest of their lives."
These were indeed the common tactics among the unorthodox sects, the blood sect and the demonic sects to recruit members and cause chaos and cause heavy damage to the people within the central lands which shook up the martial alliances power and control over many years during Ki's previous life.
Marilyn sat wide eyed upon hearing Ki explain the possible outcomes. "I see that the villagers are quite easy to target for most of these approaches… it is that they can so easily spread their sect in such ways but what about the virtues? Are they as dangerous?"
"The virtues are generally good ways to live your life in moderation. There are humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience, and diligence.. For example having the kindness to be able to give charity to others is a good trait to have but it is not good to give out too much of what belongs to yourself to others at the expense of ruining yourself or putting yourself in a difficult situation." Ki laughed while giving another example. "Another one would be diligence, while it is good to work hard in order to succeed as there is also a need to rest in order to avoid overworking and harming your body. An example in the village would be a villager who may have hurt themselves during work because of their need to get everything done on time or ahead of schedule while not taking care of their health… they may not recover from the injury and fall into debts. In their desperation they may end up making the worst decision and be tempted by others or their family members may also become targets because of their injury and debts which are due."
Marilyn nodded. "It seems like I need to study more. Although I faced many of these in my days during the slums I can see that I need to know about these things more thoroughly. I can imagine you are telling me this so I can spot those who are vulnerable within my organisation in the future."
"Precisely, it's good to know about human nature when working with information about the people and events of the world. It will help to predict what kind of movements the people will make in the future from the information you have gathered and spot potential enemy spies or traitors within your organisation." Ki nodded and then began to stand up after finishing her tea. "Let's go train, the coming days may become more dangerous. Right now we need to be in our best condition for the war to come."