Hao Yu was quite amused by Ren Yexiang's response, but he couldn't help but see himself in her.
"I guess this is what my teacher felt when he took me in," Hao Yu smiled. Obviously, he couldn't trust Ren Yexiang completely, and her ability was still unknown. But that determination was enough to let him know that Ren Yexiang could sacrifice everything just to learn the tricks in order to kill the cultivators. And this was enough for Hao Yu.
"Alright then. I hope that you don't regret this," Hao Yu warned her with a playful smirk as if he was challenging her instead.
"I am not. Even if I can't achieve my goal, I would rather die trying."
"So, you want to follow me?"
"If it can achieve my goal, then yes. But I might leave you if I deem that you're not capable. I'm ready to do that much."
"Don't worry. You won't." Hao Yu raised one finger. "I only have one condition for the people who want to follow me. Don't use whatever the cultivator uses, including their cultivation technique, spiritual items, and other things. Measuring Crystals might be related, but they are not considered as one, so you may use that kind of stuff."
"I understand," she agreed without hesitation.
Hao Yu nodded and turned back to the slum. "In fact, my plan isn't that ridiculous. I'm not going to sacrifice all these slums. I just want to change and use them."
"What do you mean?" Ren Yexiang tilted her head in confusion, noticing that she had misunderstood him.
"I want you to take care of the slum."
"Me? But I don't have the knowledge, experience, or even the position that my father had. And even with that, I don't know if I can do it."
"That's because the method is wrong. While the latter part is just a test for you, the first part is a genuine response from me. By having a leader, the slum would definitely improve."
"So, I have to beat all of them up here? I'm going to tell you here, but I don't know any martial arts to beat them."
"No. I'm not telling you about that kind of leader. Instead, what do you think is the resource that we can take advantage of from the slum?"
"Hmm?" Ren Yexiang looked down, falling into deep thought. The slum was basically the unusable people gathering together in one place, so there was really no way to take advantage of them. If they used the thugs, the soldiers would just mess with them. So, she couldn't think of anything.
Hao Yu gave another clue. "Once you enter the city, don't you see a lot of beggars in the street?"
"The beggars?" She soon came to a realization and asked, "Are you going to use them as your eyes?"
"Yes. There are a lot of beggars in the city… Not just this city, but the other cities as well. If we control them and connect with each other, won't it be useful to become our eyes?" Hao Yu smirked.
"So, you're saying that I'm going to become the leader of the beggars?"
"Correct. However, I don't need you to do anything special… in fact, due to the current condition, getting their hearts is pretty easy."
"What do you mean? Are you going to reconstruct the entire slum to get their heart?"
"No. If we just give them everything, they will become lazy and won't work. Hence, we'll use food. Actually, I've gotten an agreement with the merchant association that unsold food that is about to expire would be purchased by the government."
"!!!" Ren Yexiang gasped, finally seeing the big picture. "Our division is the one taking care of the purchase, but the main office is the one paying for it. And by giving that food to the beggars, we can capture their hearts and complete the task from the main office. And with more organized beggars, they will become our eyes that can do anything for us… and that's without us paying a single coin."
"There is one more thing." Hao Yu raised one finger. "I don't plan on giving this food to the normal citizens for one reason. If they receive this food, they will know that they actually don't need to buy anything from the merchants, and they will just wait until we hand over this food."
"So, I have to make sure that the normal citizens are not mixed with the people in the slum?"
"Yes. Take a few beggars and make them your direct subordinates, observing the entire population. They will surely recognize the citizens or even cultivators. If there are exceptional people among them, raise their ranks like the ones we have in the government system. And I will probably provide them with a Measuring Crystal to find a hidden cultivator."
"I understand. Since the system is still incomplete, I have to do it by trial and error. Besides, there is one more thing you need to know. Their status is below the normal citizens, so the cultivators don't necessarily look at them like a person."
"They are looking at them like either an ant or an object."
"It's probably the latter. And they don't destroy 'objects' more than people. So, using the beggars will be beneficial for us."
"Fair enough. Can I let you handle this?"
"Yes, Sir." Ren Yexiang nodded without hesitation. It would be hard for anyone else, but she had stayed in the slum for years, so she had understood how they worked. She would definitely succeed.
"Good. In that case, there is also one more thing I wish for you to do." Hao Yu smirked. "The beggars are the eyes while we are the brains. However, we are still lacking a weapon to kill the cultivators."
"So, this task is to get the hands?"
"No, the weapons."
"Weapon?" Ren Yexiang was quite surprised to know that there was a mortal weapon that could kill a cultivator. But when she thought about it, a normal weapon could kill a Qi Gathering Stage Expert. But if they wanted to eliminate a stronger cultivator, they would need a more specialized weapon. "What kind of weapon are you talking about?"
There was an evil smile on Hao Yu's face when he explained it. And even Ren Yexiang seemed to have underestimated Hao Yu's insanity.