Yin Shen bowed respectfully to his patron.

Some, if not most, cultivators are never particularly kind or respectful to mortals, but as a free cultivator, Shen had found that honey catches more flies than vinegar.

Shen had always found himself to a free spirit, plus he grew up poor as fuck, so he distrusted people in positions of power to the extent that he never truly set out looking for a sect.

Not so much that he wouldn’t take their money, but...

This patron, however, didn’t pay much attention to it. Not that Shen blamed him, what with the situation.

“You are not the first available person we could get, no.” Cáo Qián, head of the Cáo merchant group addressed the free cultivator. “You have a reputation, which we have paid a premium for.”

“It’s more than what the ransomers asked.” Qián admitted freely. “But I cannot establish myself in Mistvale while under the thumbs of common thugs.”

“This is about saving my son,” The merchant turned away the cultivator. “but do send a message.”

Shen was away before the man could say another word.

…

~2 weeks after Dan’s manifestation.

Yāo Dan walked through the sanctuary he and his had constructed. He smiled at what he saw.

It was… homey, they may have been made to shelter the needy and avoid detection, but he wouldn’t have his followers live like rats in a cave. In this shelter alone, there was wood floors and carpets, ventilation and heating systems, beds, secured storage, guards, and live entertainment.

Dan’s smile grew more pronounced as he thought of the schedules of bards singing their epics and reciting their poems, and of the book readings and plays he’d sponsored. It would take some time, but Dan would have his media supremacy among the various peoples of this ‘Earthly Empire’.

Wei had sought to complain, but was quickly mollified when he was reminded that Dan could create all of the materials they’d need for the undertaking, and actual monetary expenses would only come from training, and possibly recruitment, if necessary. So Wei sent one of his underlings with the expense reports, budget allotments, and material logs to one of Fu’s underlings, to see about officially setting the project off.

Yue was happy to have herself and hers advise what should be in their propa- traditions. While Li was only tasked with eventually subtly judging the ‘public’s’ response to the song and dance.

It was only the first in his daily visits to the compounds, playing the role of overseer, until he got a head of operations. He had made a series of underground bunkers, spaced around vital areas around town. They boasted several hidden entrances to stop detection, wards to stop intruders, and alarms to have him stop problems.

The compounds were also shielded from detection in every way Dan knew how too, which was only three, but still, it was better than nothing. Chameleon wards would give most rudimentary qi sensing abilities false readings, as well as cover a few entrances from plain sight. Glyph arrays would made of Dan’s own ‘knowledge’ demonic qi would hopefully make anyone who does manage to notice it forget immediately. Giant 8 chi in diameter quartz spheres were present in each and every sanctuary.

Dan had, painstakingly over the course of several hours each, infused the crystals with the concept of ‘divination’ via demonic influence. The inherent chaos bending power that each and every demon has. Usually, demons would use this warping power to do generic things like ‘form a barrier’, ‘heat stuff’, or maybe just ‘corrupt’ which would send chaos out just to warp things.

This made demon a pain to fight in general, as they could do what they want, when they want. Though this was common knowledge, it was highly suppressed information that this energy/matter manipulation racial ability of demons could turn into outright reality manipulation in demons skilled or knowledgeable enough.

Dan, of course, didn’t care what information was suppressed in the populations of his rivals, his vision of the future involved mass education leading to mass advancements in, well, almost everything. A knowledge that was deeply engraved in him, from his lifetime, to the gifts of a thousand others, was that the masses had a potential that outshines even of that of the gods of this world.

‘Perhaps that of all gods, too.’ Dan had wondered while contemplating his situation one night.

So, he gladly put that potential in his demonic texts, a mandatory reading material if you wanted any form of rank in his cult, along with information like that demons, along with angels, horrors, and elementals, had an unlimited amount of qi since they were partly composed of the very building blocks of reality.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Limitless, but not all powerful, if not drew out a rate that isn’t sustainable for the being’s body, the qi would tear the being apart from their seams. Which is why a large amount of the deaths of these beings are described as ‘fading away into nothingness’ since they would rather be shredded apart than lose.

Dan had even made a point to note that ‘qi furnace’ type beings that most mortals are, could easily be stronger than a ‘fundamental’ being. It was simplifying battles to the extreme, but all a mortal had to do to beat a fundamental was exert an amount of qi that outpaced the other beings generation limit. This was most present in elementals, since they had a few members that were far less prestigious than the other races. A foundation establishment cultivator could easily trounce an elemental whose generation limit was in the range of a qi gathering human.

The point was that all beings had limits. Which is why Dan couldn’t just ‘victory button’ his way into wining all life, and it’s also why Dan had to spend a day and a half making giant white balls, since he knew fuck-all about how to actually divine the future.

Those balls though, they repeatedly scanned the area with divinations, and showed them to no one. With no one to interpret, or any real technique applied at all, this did nothing but make it more difficult to divine the area they are in

Which was the point, actually. Shielding your base from divination entirely was easy enough, but a dead giveaway. Divination being difficult in any given location could be caused by many reasons, and only one of them was cultists in your walls!

So Dan walked, content to do his busy work while he looked for competent underlings to delegate to. Until…

“Oh great one, please…” Dan was interrupted from his ministrations by one of his cultists groveling before him. This had been happening more now that he had recruited a few thousand followers, Dan had been trying to add more delegation and administration, but just making somewhat desperate people swear a magical oath and then impressing them was so much easier than breeding loyalty into his direct subordinates.

‘This one is… The one who turned into a recluse after failing to become a cultivator.’ He thought to himself, it was a shame, his story. The young man and his community shamed the man in his mid twenties, but the reality was that he was doomed to failure. Just a little bit of money does not a cultivator make, the family should have used their connections to the local nobility better.

But Dan digressed. ‘Yes?’ He intoned pleasantly.

“It’s… it’s about the Chens…” The man got out after some hesitance.

Dan had to resist rolling his eyes. A few complaints about the extra work the organization brought him, and now there are rumors about how he hated people even mentioning the name…

‘Go on?’ Dan prompted.

“T-they got my sister!” The man cried. “I-I plead for your assistance!”

Normally such a declaration would have brought silence upon a room, what with shock, and then eventual attention. But people had gotten used to people asking the demon that walks among them for aid, and people have gotten used to Dan helping.

There wasn’t even a break in the polite conversation going on around them. Perhaps some would be annoyed, at the lack of respect and importance that aiding another was getting. Maybe they would chafe at the idea at people expecting aid from them.

But Dan,

‘Hmm, the Serpents Hand?’ Dan asked the man easily.

The man seemed surprised of Dan’s knowledge, but didn’t miss a beat. “Yes, my lord! Please! Please help me!”

Dan didn’t care about things like people’s gratitude. Debt was a much smaller motivator than routine, and even if good deeds couldn’t win the hearts of the masses, they could get the people themselves dependent on him. And that came with an entirely different set of uses.

‘Worry not!’ Dan replied. ‘A few thugs cannot even see the majesty of this heavenly demon!’

As Dan basked in the relief and adoration of his follower, he wondered idly if he had a savior complex.

‘Ah well,’ He thought as he dematerialized himself. ‘It feels good to do good.’

As he positioned himself over the gangs compound hidden in the woods, he had to wonder. ‘How big of a problem could this be?’

…

As Yin Shen sprinted towards the compound he found, he prepared himself. He didn’t know how long ago his client had sought out his services, but he knew that the quicker he solved this issue the bigger the impression he would make was.

One step, two step, three step. Shen’s movement technique brought him right up to the gate guards before they could even see him.

While one man was yawning, the curved hilt of his Dao knife planted itself in his neck. His guard companion was already reacting, the increased speed of a cultivator allowing for split second reactions.

But before the guard could ready his Guandao or raise the alarm Shen’s second Dao was raked across the second guard's throat, the resistance sending the blade flying.

One might think this would be the end of the fight, but cultivators fought until they could no more. The first guard was already nearing Shen with a fist technique ready, and the second guard’s call may have been ruined, but his Guandao blade was piercing the air towards Yin Shen.

The guards may have had similar cultivation levels as Shen, but the lone cultivator had a concrete advantage, technique.

Shen stepped away from the fist technique and into the guard of his polearm wielding foe.

With one motion, Shen tore the weapon from him, throwing the guard off balance. In the very next, his foot slammed into the kneecap of the poor thug, sending him into free fall.

As the guard with the knife in his throat completed whiffing his fistful of qi, Shen imbued his body with some of his own shadow qi and slammed the staff portion into the falling fellow.

This caused the two to collide with a meaty thwap, where they then fell to the floor hacking blood involuntarily.

Whatever mercy the two might have had, Shen wasn’t the one to give it to them. With a burst of qi, Shen burst forwards and drove the blade of the Guandao into the dirt, and through the midsections of the guards.

With a tendril of shadow qi, Shen retrieved his Dao blades and rushed into the compound, loaded with weaponry and intent to raise hell.