Within a year of the slave revolt, a rebellion had formed, causing many hardships for the syndicates of Alaran.

The headquarters of the rebellion was where it was first formed, the slave holdings of the deceased Bai Fu, who had been one of the major players in his business.

The dug in nature of the hold made it very easy to defend and all places of the empire were within reach from the position it held, being very close to the center of the country and even closer to Chisimdi, a port city connected to the biggest river in the world, Garangos, which started from the mountains of Alaran and slithered through Chauk and Kathe and Castirin.

The syndicates were mostly in the dark about who attacked them.

The leaders of the major businesses of the underworld held a meeting to determine who it could have been.

Four out of five met in the Zauren Asiri Castle which belong to Rang Fulan, a cousin of Aini, who didn’t hold a very high rank in the royal line but still shared blood with them. Very early on in the deterioration of the Emperor, he allied with the criminals to gain more power in return for him to inform them about the on goings inside the royal grounds.

In addition, Chenmi Xiangle, Gonzuo Bushun and Congming Panshi were present.

Only Jinu Zhanfu, who was more commonly known as Fubai or Bai Fu, was not present, as he had been dead for a year now and no one had yet replaced him.

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Xiangle was responsible for the creation and trafficking of drugs throughout the country.

Panshi tracked and divided the finances of the united syndicates.

And Bushun provided the manpower for most of the businesses that were going on.

Zhanfu would have been in charge of everything which had to do with the ‘relocation’ of people.

“Week after week there are new news that a operation has failed, either being attacked or sabotaged and I do not even want to think about the ones which were just outright destroyed,” said Xiangle upset, waving a small fan to cool his smaller frame.

“It was not unusual for a few rogue agents of the people to try to obstruct our work, but these new hits are of a different level,” said Bushun, stroking his long dark beard, “they’re too well organized, too well coordinated. I’ve seen them during an attack a few weeks back. They’re experienced, going in and out, causing maximum damage in just a few minutes and then completely disappearing. They were also well equipped with high-quality armor, weapons, sometimes even with alchemical supplies; potions, bombs and the like.

And it seems they have very detailed insights of the places they’re attacking. So the questions at hand are:

Who is funding them?

Who is training them?

How does the information leak?

And most important of all, where in the hell are they?”

Panshi, the youngest of the four men, now spoke up, “you know, Bushun. If you would have done your job better, we may not have this problem at all. The men and security you provide are weak, after all.”

Bushun gave the young man a mean look and wanted to speak up, but Fulan did so first, “Now, now, it has been decades since signs of any resistance against our… business. With the right person in command, our complacency towards the status quo was easy to exploit. And now, with multiple attacks in such a short amount of time, it is most likely that they want to split our attention and spread our forces thin.”