Ling Yue established the Devil's Gate using the assassins under Ash's old troop. The troop was filled with twenty strong Chi uses who had sworn loyalty to him. Wherever Ash went, they followed.
Now that Ash was Ling Yue's follower, his men automatically became hers.
Ling Yue quickly increased the number of assassins in the Devil's Gate by undermining famous assassins from other organizations to join her. She spread word of the Devil's Gate and of the benefits one would receive if an assassin decided to join.
Assassins were creatures of the dark; they lived with blood, death, and despair; they were considered heartless, humans without feelings. It was easy to forget that assassins too craved to have their own families and had loved ones they needed to protect.
Ling Yue knew assassins were human. They were no different than anyone you'd meet on the street. They didn't choose to live with blood and darkness. The men wanted to marry beautiful wives and start their own families. No one could be alone forever.
But wives and Children were weaknesses no assassin could afford, so most went on with their lives until they die alone on duty.
Ling Yue saw them no different from butchers who slaughtered animals for a living.
She gave the men things they desired the most – freedom, money, a place to stay, and a family.
She created a secret haven for the assassins' wives and Children. She made a blood oath to protect them with her life.
In this world, if one made a blood oath, the Heavens recorded that oath and made sure it gets seen through until the end. If the oath was ever broken, ninety nine strokes of thunder will rain down from the sky as the oath breaker's punishment.
The blood oath has existed since ancient times; no one has ever escaped breaking their blood oath; all died to thunder, burnt to a crisp.
Every master treated their assassins like maChines.
No one cared about what the assassins felt or how they lived. Ling Yue was a master that treated her followers like equals. She was even willing risk her life to protect their loved ones. How could they not be moved? The assassins and they trusted the blood oath, so they promised Ling Yue their lives.
The Devil's Gate's name soon spread far and wide.
After a while, the Devil's Gate's assassins started swallowing up other assassin organizations of the Lunar Empire's underworld. After eradicating an organization's leader, the Devil's Gate gave that organization's assassins a chance to surrender and swear a loyalty blood oath to the Devil's Hand. This made the Devil's Gate grow stronger every passing day.
Remaining assassin organizations were threatened. The leaders grouped up to destroy the Devil's Gate once and for all, before it grew too strong and out of control.
Before news of an assassin's war could spread across the Empire's underworld, those leaders' heads had already fallen.
They all died of poison in their own bed chambers; on their walls wrote the same blood quote: "The Devil's Hand never forgives those who want him dead. "
The organizations became headless snakes; the strongest assassins fought amongst themselves, struggling for leadership. Not long afterwards, almost every assassin in such organizations had sworn loyalty to the Devil's Gate, and the underworld's assassins were for once united under one name.
Ling Yue had given Ash the mission of subjugating other organizations, and he finished his work flawlessly.
Thank god she chose oriental medicine as her major back in the days; Ash was not only strong in martial-arts; he was capable in every aspect of leadership. With him in charge of the assassins under her wing, all Ling Yue had to focus on was her own training and the pharmacies.
Ling Yue sat in front of her work table, hands under her Chin. Scrap paper was strewn all across the wide table, covered in thoughts and plans. She found herself organizing her thoughts like this frequently, with Loan guarding the door, all was quiet for her focus.
She sighed, picking up the stacks of paper and burning them, including all the letters she had received from Ash and Mao.
Things are going surprisingly well, since she had the Yue Clan's wealth to back up her projects. She still had so many things to do...
Her previous life had taught her that without power and influence, she could be dead in no time.
To her frustration, she still had no Chi. She tried meditating – what normal Chi users do when they wanted to increase their Chi storage – but it was of no use.
In this world where Chi and martial arts were the two most important things, she could not afford to be so useless. Her poison has it limits, she'd die in the blink of an eye in front of a true high-class Chi master. That was part of the reason why she created the Devil's Gate.
Holding an assassin's organization meant holding the underworld's info web in her hands. She could track any information she wanted, it was a crucial benefit that she'd take good use of in the future.
The Devil's Gate and the Devil's Pharmacy wasn't enough, though. She needed more power. She needed power that could suppress even the Emperor. She wasn't going to sit there and let an Emperor control her.
Perhaps to the people in this world the Emperor's words were absolute, but to Ling Yue, he is but a mere human. She now has people she wanted to protect, she wanted to live this life to its fullest.
The Imperial harem has already started to target the forces inside her hands, but she wasn't going to give them what they want. Ling Yue knew all too well what the Concubine Li wants when she asked for the Devil's Hand Physician to come to her. The concubine wanted to borrow her power.
With the help of a continent-wide pharmacy and an underworld information web in her hands, the concubine would have no trouble climbing the ranks in the Emperor's harem. Maybe, even target the Empress' throne that she has been staring at for so long.
Ling Yue wasn't going to help her. If the stupid concubine had the guts to mess around with the Devil's Hand, then let her bear the consequences. Did she not hear about the Devil's Hand's cruel antics?
Other concubines and even the Emperor must have received word about the concubine Li's illness request. And yet, no one stopped her or advised her not to mess with the underworld. They were all sitting on their audience seats, calmly watching two tigers fight each other.
Very well, if the Imperial Family wanted her organizations so bad, let them come. One by one, she'd destroy them all.