A short but confident young brown woman walked to an inn owned by the Great Merchant Group. The Great Merchant Group made the most profits from this inn as they catered specifically to the wealthy and powerful inside here. She made no effort to slow down as she headed toward the entrance despite the looks that the guards were giving her at the door. As she made it to the entrance, two swords instantly pointed at her neck.
“Hey, hey, hey. What the fuck kind of service is this?!” She loudly complained without the elegance of a woman at all.
The young woman held a wooden sword in her hand as she gave the two guards a nasty glare. She wore the robes of the Blossoming Water Palace but didn’t seem like she was a part of their sect at all. At least, for the two guards at the front, they have never seen such a rough woman from the Blossoming Water Palace. They were highly suspicious of her for multiple reasons.
“If you’re willing to threaten someone with a sword, you better be willing to die for threatening their life.”
“Hmph! You’re not welcome here. Please leave before we decide to get rough with you.” First Guard warned.
“And why the fuck not? I got money you dickless son of a bitch. How the fuck are you going to not let me inside your store when I haven’t done shit? Is this the kind of service that the Great Merchant Group gives out at its stores? It discriminates based on someone’s appearance!?”
By now, multiple passersby’s began to crowd in the distance watching the conflict. After hearing the loud voice of the woman and seeing the swords pointed at a seemingly defenseless woman, people got curious about what was going on.
“If you continue to make a fuss and disrupt our business, we will be forced to deal with you.” Second Guard threatened.
“And I have the right to make a fucking fuss you shitfaced bastard! Here I am, an innocent customer who only wants to eat and drink at one of the most famous inns in Xuanyin City. But for some fucking reason I'm being harassed when I haven’t even done anything! It’s no fucking wonder why everyone goes to the Heavenly Association instead. They actually know how to fucking treat people with dignity in their stores!” She continued to yell, not threatened by the sharp metal swords of the guards at all.
“Is that true? Is the Heavenly Association really that great? Why haven’t I heard of them?”
“I went to their inn once. The employees are scary but the food and drinks are pretty great.”
“I heard about them but never went to their stores before. I guess I should check them out if I could be treated like this by the Great Merchant Group...”
“People like us are also treated pretty great in their stores. They treat normal people with the same amount of respect as they treat cultivators.”
“Really!?”
“No way that’s true.”
“It really is! I saw it with my own eyes as they even let a filthy stinky beggar into their store and treated him exactly the same as a dignified handsome wandering cultivator. If that was any other store, they’d throw the beggar out before he made it to the door!”
By now, the guards could see that the dark-skinned young girl was causing more trouble than they thought was possible. If they let this continue, it would be their butts responsible for the reputation of their inn being destroyed. Killing a mouthy annoying girl was better than being chewed out by their superiors. The two guards looked at each other before nodding.
“You can’t just spew anything you want without repercussions!” First Guard swung his sword toward the defenseless girl.
“In your next life, learn to talk less!” Second Guard chopped horizontally at the same time as First Guard.
“Idiots.” Hu Tao grinned with his tongue sticking out, an expression the crowd behind him couldn’t see.
The inelegant young maiden effortlessly struck the metal swords out of the way. Hu Tao’s wooden sword moved without grace and frightening brutality. First Guard was struck in the throat with the wooden sword and dropped to the ground. His hands were clutched around his throat as he desperately tried gasping for air. Second Guard’s shoulder was suddenly smashed before a multitude of whacks came down on his body. Each strike with the wooden sword seemed to break bones or bruised skin.
The crowd was speechless as they saw how the situation turned out. Instead of a girl being cut to death by the Great Merchant Group, this girl was beating them with relative ease! The Blossoming Water Palace must be really powerful if even a young girl like this was this strong! Some of the people in the crowd began to cheer as they saw the rude guards being mercilessly beaten. A few would call it deserved justice while others would call it a rude awakening.
By the time the two guards were helpless, moaning, groaning, and crying, eventually more guards came to check up on the situation. Seeing the young girl affiliated with the Blossoming Water Palace standing over the bodies of their men with a wicked smile on her face, it didn’t take much for them to understand what was going on. They were being attacked!
Hu Tao couldn’t be happier to see the group of guards coming out with swords.
“And I thought the Nine Swords Sect was all about justice, fairness, and doing the right thing! But it's clear that they are nothing more than hypocrites no worse than the Golden Serpent Sect! All these men and they want to group up on a single girl. Where is your honor?! Where is your face!? Where is your pride?!” Hu Tao continued to slander the Great Merchant Group.
“Shut her up and deal with her.” The leader of the guards said to his men. “If anyone dares to spread rumors about this, expect a visit from us!” He said to the watching crowd.
Multiple cultivators from the Great Merchant Group charged at Hu Tao. Hu Tao could barely keep himself from laughing. Cultivators loved their face! They couldn’t help but defend their face when it’s being attacked and disrespected!
Hu Tao used his wooden sword like a club instead of a sword as he dealt with the weaklings. Eventually, the fight moved to inside the inn where Hu Tao was more than happy to spend some of his time destroying the fancy and luxurious interior of the inn. The inn’s customers quickly fled as they saw the young girl didn’t care if they were involved or not. She destroyed tables, split desks, injured people not involved in her fight. The young girl seemed to only be here to cause chaos and destruction and no one could stop her!
“The Blossoming Water Palace is the best of the Three Great Sects! I’m only an Outer Disciple but here I am destroying all of the Nine Swords Sect’s disciples! Maybe instead of being a Great Sect, you should be lowered down to a Minor Sect instead.” Hu Tao trash-talked as he kicked a table over.
“Enough!” A voice filled with qi knocked into Hu Tao, forcing him to the ground with its pressure.
Hu Tao whistled as he looked around at the amount of damage he caused so far. Pretty damn impressive, he would say. Honestly, he was surprised it took so long for someone worth a damn to come try and stop him. They just kept sending weaklings after weaklings like with enough numbers, he could be stopped or something. He strained to raise his head to look at the strong bastard capable of stopping him for a moment.
“Damn, I didn’t know the Nine Swords Sect had pigs as their disciples.” Hu Tao cackled at the sight of the big man on top of the stairs.
“Do you know what you’ve done!? The Great Merchant Group was fine with leaving the Blossoming Flower Alliance out of our fight but now you’ve done away with all of that! No mercy shall be spared to your group! And you will be the first to die for it.” Qi radiated off of his fat body.
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“I didn’t start shit fat ass! If you just let me in your inn to eat and drink, none of this would’ve happened. This bullshit would’ve never happened at an inn owned by the Heavenly Association. They actually know how to treat their customers.”
“Quit babbling! We always knew that the Blossoming Flower Alliance would try to reap the benefits of our battle with the Golden Demon Association! We just didn’t know when you would take action.” The fatty threw away her words as nonsense.
“So what! You think this is the only business being targeted by our Flower Alliance! Say goodbye to all your stores in Xuanyin City! We’re fucking up everything you got in this city!” Hu Tao yelled as he lit a teleportation spell and disappeared from the inn while laughing.
“Daimon! Get the leader and inform her about the Blossoming Flower Alliance! As soon as possible!” The fatty ordered a thin figure dressed in black robes hiding in the shadows.
“Understood.”
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In a newly built inn, filled to the brim with mortals and cultivators alike, gossip and rumors danced about. The interior was decorated quite well and the atmosphere felt inviting and comfortable for those that entered inside. For those that ate the food and drank the alcohol, there was nothing they could complain about. However, there was something strange about the employees that worked at this inn.
It was obvious to anyone that walked into the establishment that it was affiliated with some gang. All of the employees looked like bandits! Scars on their faces or bodies, large muscular builds with hair all over, and intimidating presences that put the average martial artist nervous. Even the women working in the inn weren’t exceptions to this.
This made several people and martial art groups curious about which group this inn was being sponsored by or affiliated with. Some brave martial artists directly asked the employees this question without fear. The employees always responded with the same answer regardless of which group or cultivator asked.
“None of ya’ business!”
They showed the basic amount of respect to all customers and treated no person or group more favorably than another. Unless someone decided to cause trouble inside the inn, customers were treated like customers and there was no problem. Many wished the waiters and employees were better looking while they ate their food and drank but that was only a few of the complaints the inn received.
Despite not sharing which group they were affiliated with, it didn’t take much for people to eventually figure out which group was running this inn. There was a special characteristic of this group that wasn’t easy to hide no matter what type of business they started. All of the employees looked like bandits and miscreants! The type to start and cause trouble no matter where they went. But surprisingly enough, there were no rumors of the Heavenly Association gangsters mistreating anyone except those that caused trouble at their business locations. As time went on, the people of Xuanyin City eventually began to think of people with appearances like those of the Heavenly Association in a positive light. Not to mention, every business location run by them always had great service and amazing products to sell.
“I heard that the Great Merchant Group and Golden Demon Association don’t dare to fight in places owned by the Heavenly Association...”
“Me too! I don’t know if this is true or not but I heard that the last time those from the Great Merchant Group and the Golden Demon Association tried causing trouble in a place owned by the Heavenly Association both groups were beaten black and blue before being thrown outside the business.”
“Why doesn’t the Heavenly Association just use this time to wipe out both the Great Merchant Group and Golden Demon Association? If they do that, they’d have more business and less trouble to deal with!”
“It’d certainly make life easier for me... Those two groups don’t care when or where and will fight at the sight of each other.”
“I just wish they’d spare weak people like us from their battles. You know half of my house was destroyed from a fight by two members of those groups, right? I don’t have any money to pay for repairs!”
“Haven’t you heard about the Heavenly Association’s Home Insurance?”
“What the hell is that?”
“If you sign a contract with the Heavenly Association, they’ll pay for the repairs of your house in the case of an event where its destroyed or damaged by things outside of your control. Fire, tornado, cultivators, lightning, and all you have to do is pay a monthly fee for their services.”
“How much is this fee...?” He squinted his eyes. This sounded too good to be true.
“It depends on the type of house you have. If you live in the slums, it won’t be much because the houses there aren’t as valuable as the ones owned by the nobles. I would definitely recommend you sign with the Heavenly Association because you can even keep the leftover money if there is any!”
“This sounds like a scam man. If this insorance is so good, why aren’t more people signing with the Heavenly Association then?”
“Insurance. And that’s because no one knows about it! The building is on the outskirts of the city on the opposite end of the entrance to the city. They don’t even have people outside the building bringing attention to it like with other businesses owned by the Heavenly Association.”
“Wouldn’t it be easy to take advantage of it though? Since the fighting between the Great Merchant Group and the Golden Demon Association is at its peak, everyone would be getting paid, wouldn’t they?”
“That is why now is the perfect time to sign with them! I’ve been trying to bring cultivators over near my home just so that they could fight and possibly destroy my house but they never come around my place. But I'm not discouraged, it’ll happen eventually and then I'll be a rich rich man!” He laughed as he took a deep gulp of beer.
“Do you think the Heavenly Association has more secret businesses like that insurance one in Xuanyin City?”
“Did you know the Heavenly Association built a dojo in the slums?”
“That can’t be true.”
“Everyone would be talking about it if it was.”
“No! No! It is true! I’ve noticed for the past few weeks that a big group of orphans in the slums go to some place every day in the morning. They walked together in a big little group like a bunch of stinky little lost ducklings. Eventually, I decided to pay one of the bigger kids and ask him where do they go every morning. And he told me the Heavenly Association’s Martial Arts Dojo!”
“Did you check the place out?”
“Is it only for children?”
“Does it cost money?”
“No, no, and no! The only thing those orphans are paying is loyalty to the Heavenly Association. The Heavenly Association would give them the opportunity to learn martial arts for free as long as they promise to work for their organization in the future. And those dumb orphans would promise to give away their organs as long as they got the chance to eat every day and learn martial arts like they do now.”
“Hmm... I should sign my son up for that school then... I haven’t seen a single Heavenly Association member that had a bad physique. If my son can get into that school, he’ll definitely be able to grow up strong and easily make a living with the Heavenly Association.”
“They accept girls too, don’t they?”
“Yes. I saw more than a few girls a part of that orphan group.”
“Are they open right now?”
“I don’t know what time the orphans leave the school. I just know that they travel together in the morning in the slums.”
In a matter of weeks and months, the Heavenly Association slowly but mercilessly eliminated most of their competition within Xuanyin City. They left the local businesses alone but took all of the customers from the Great Merchant Group, Golden Demon Association, and Blossoming Flower Alliance. It wasn’t difficult at all considering the battle at the time between the Three Great Sects. The innocent mortals and cultivators alike that lived within Xuanyin City would rather do their business with a group that seemed to actually care about their well-being and sold reputable products for both the poor and the rich. Since none of the Three Great Sects acted as if they cared about the damage and harm they were bringing to Xuanyin City and its populace.
Where the Three Great Sects failed, the Heavenly Association stepped in. However, how could the Three Great Sects accept defeat from an unknown opponent that wanted to take advantage of their battle? Where would they put their face as the Three Great Sects of the Evergreen Continent?! For a brief period of time, the Three Great Sects put aside their differences to completely destroy the tiny little threat wanting to devour their scraps. Luo Miao, Du Chaojin, and Sun Meijing. The three leaders of the Great Merchant Group, Golden Demon Association, and Blossoming Flower Alliance came together to discuss how exactly would they deal with the Heavenly Association Group.
“Why can’t we just destroy all their businesses and kill them!?” Luo Miao yelled.
“Believe it or not, the Heavenly Association has some skilled martial artists in their group.” Du Chaojin argued. “It wouldn’t be as simple as that to get rid of them.”
“What did you have in mind?” Sun Meijing asked, sensing Chaojin had a plan in mind.
“We can destroy their businesses, but in a different manner from what you’re thinking, Miao.” Du Chaojin smirked.
“What the hell are you talking about you snake bastard?”
“Just leave it to me for a few weeks. If my plan doesn’t work, we can try Meijing’s idea next.”
“Oh, and my plan is the last because it's stupid. Is that what you’re getting at?” A sword-like aura rose from Luo Miao’s body.
“Your plan is last because it has the biggest risks.”
“You haven’t even heard that fake bitches plan!”
“Meijing’s plan will still be less risky.” Du Chaojin said with confidence.
“Thank you, Chaojin.” Meijing gave a beautiful smile.
“Whatever! As long as the Heavenly Association is destroyed, I don’t give a shit.” Luo Miao suddenly stood up and stormed out of the room.