“Were you sent by Lord Jing?” Abhaya asked the handsome blonde sitting outside Xuanyin City.
“That’s right! Are you Hu Tao’s right-hand man?” He asked back.
“Correct.” Abhaya tried measuring the strength of the beautiful man but couldn’t sense anything at all. It was as if he was just a regular mortal.
“Welp, let’s get started then. All you need to do is plant these four talismans at the edges of Xuanyin City and I'll handle the rest.” He hopped down from the tree with ease.
“There’s nothing else you need me to do?” Abhaya was confused. It sounded too simple and easy.
“Nope. Have fun at Cloud Dragon City Vice Leader Abhaya.” He casually waved with a glistening smile.
“What is your name?” Abhaya’s single wing began to flap as he slowly took air.
“You can call me Wen. I guess I'm the leader of Heaven’s Angels’ Intelligence Squad. You’d probably be a part of the Commercial or Business Squad.” Wen laughed. “But that’s something I just made up. Jing hasn’t officially given my job a name. Actually, I'm not even sure if I'm in Heaven’s Angels yet!” He laughed even harder.
“I see...” Abhaya muttered a silent prayer for the young man who seemed a little off in the head before flying off.
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Wen stared at the single-winged little bald monk flying into the distance in amazement. Joining Jing helped him see all sorts of new strange sights. Honestly, it was liberating how free he could be now. Thanks to her gifting him Jester’s Infinite Cloning, he could clone himself multiple times over. Of course, duplicating did come at a heavy cost but that cost was negated by Jing’s seemingly infinite wealth and resources. To duplicate himself, Wen needed to sacrifice 100% of his qi. After doing so, he’d be so drained of energy and strength, he would instantly fall unconscious.
Wen had the duplicates take care of him during those periods. In the Golden Serpent Sect, sometimes it wasn’t even safe to fall asleep in one’s own home. Usually, nothing would happen to a disciple. But if a disciple was known to stir up trouble or catch the attention of the wrong type of person, nowhere would be safe. However, Wen didn’t have an issue like that. Over the course of the last several months after joining Jing, his presence at the sect has basically reduced to nothing.
He was pretty happy about it. Before meeting Jing, his life was nothing but cultivating, fighting, and keeping face for his master. A dull life that Wen didn’t enjoy in the slightest. What was so fun about fighting and defending one’s pride all the time? There were better things in life to enjoy. Like women, gambling, wasting money, eating tasty food, ultimately living life in luxury and leisure.
With Jester’s Infinite Cloning, Wen’s life got 100 times easier. While most of his time was off collecting information and doing errands for Jing, at the same time it wasn’t at all because of his clones! His clones could handle his chores, training, and anything else he didn’t want to do while he would do what he wanted to do! Even now, this version of Wen was nothing but a clone! Jing even agreed it would be best if the original Wen stayed at the sect and lounged around instead of doing tasks for her because the clones couldn’t make clones. Only the original Wen could make clones.
“Guess it's time to get to work.” Wen stretched his arms and gave off a long yawn as he took out a talisman.
The talisman lit up with a purple flame and soon burned to ash as multiple bright lights appeared around Wen. Instantly, several dozen men and women of all ages, sizes, and clothes took the places of the bright lights. Wen grinned as he saw the movement spell, he got from Jing work its charm. All of these people were clones just like him!
Jester’s Infinite Cloning didn’t allow the user to change their appearance. The reason why they all looked different was because of the strange mask given to him by Jing. This spirit tool could mask him from the world around him for the most part. Besides changing his appearance it could also mask his footsteps, qi, presence, and apparently even his soul according to Jing. Wen didn’t understand it or how it functioned but it seemed the effects of the spirit tool worked even for his clones.
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“Alright, everyone takes one!” Wen, the first clone, began passing out talismans different from the ones he gave Abhaya.
“Man, do we really got act like bandits and gangsters?” A clone whined as he changed his face.
“I don’t know, I think it’ll be fun. Haven’t you ever just wanted to act like absolute trash?” A female clone giggled.
“This town looks too damn big. It’s going to take forever to hand these out to the people that want to go to Cloud Dragon City.” An elderly clone sighed with one hand behind his back, his figure hunched over.
“Let’s get going and remember, stealth and speed are of the essence.” Wen relayed to the clones.
“Yea, yeah...” The clones vanished with surprising speed as they headed inside Xuanyin City.
Passing out the talismans wasn’t as simple of a task as the clones thought it would be. First, they had to do it all under the watchful eyes of the Three Great Sects. If any discussions about the Heavenly Association Group were being discussed in the presence of the Three Great Sects, the offenders would be violently beaten or even killed under certain circumstances. If the sects got their hands on one of the talismans, Wen wasn’t sure if it would be possible for them to find out its purpose or not. So, Wen thought it was better to be safe than sorry. Instead of handing the talismans out until all the people who wanted to leave Xuanyin City, the clones decided to find out who wanted to leave first and keep track of their information until the decisive day.
Second, it was impossible to keep rumors from spreading. Eventually, the Three Great Sects did hear rumors of a way to leave Xuanyin City and gained knowledge of the mysterious new residents that haven’t been seen before. Multiple disciples were posted at every possible exit and entrance of Xuanyin City as a safety precaution to prevent anyone from having thoughts of leaving. Any merchants or wanderers trying to enter the city were heavily questioned and taxed.
Third, convincing the residents of Xuanyin City that their claims were real and they were a part of the Heavenly Association Group. At first, no one was willing to believe the clones and thought it was simply a trick by the Three Great Sects to punish anyone still on the side of the Heavenly Association. To get around this, Wen started spreading rumors amongst themselves and simply let the residents of Xuanyin City hear them.
This sprouted hope within the trapped residents of the city. The truly desperate began to hunt down the source of these rumors for themselves to see if they were really true. And it was these desperate people that helped Wen’s objective move forward. Clones met with these people and gave it to them straight about their purpose in Xuanyin City. They wanted to help those who wanted to leave Xuanyin City but they couldn’t get caught by the Three Great Sects or the entire plan might go up in smoke.
“I won’t tell a soul!” A resident bowed.
“No, no, no. Please tell others like yourself. We want to help as many people as we can. The Heavenly Association is not afraid of trouble but we are afraid of losing loyal customers and employees. Just make sure to avoid letting the Three Great Sects catch you. If you wish to get in contact with us, just remember the code.” A clone told the resident.
“Y-Yes! I’ll help any way I can!” Tou bowed even deeper despite his bad back and crippled leg.
Tou’s family was saved because of the Heavenly Association. After being severely wounded because of a battle between two immortals, it was impossible for Tou to find a job to provide for his family. All hope seemed to be lost for Tou as he was repeatedly rejected from job to job because of his disability. If he couldn’t find a job to take care of his wife and children, either his wife would be forced to sell her body for other men or his 10-year-old son would have to become the man of the house. But then, the Heavenly Association arrived into town and with their arrival came an influx of jobs for all sorts of people.
At first, Tou didn’t believe the rumors at all because of how often he was rejected for his disability. It was only when he saw with his own two eyes a one-armed man working as a carpenter for the Heavenly Association Group. The man held processed wood over his shoulder with a smile on his face and happily laughed with his coworkers who didn’t seem to discriminate against him because of his injury. Tou no longer hesitated because of the rumors, he searched several Heavenly Association businesses until he found one that worked perfectly with his injuries. He worked as a sales agent for the Heavenly Association Group’s life insurance store. The store was called Heaven’s Blessing and all he had to do was help people get life insurance or answer questions regarding their life insurance!
It was the best job he’s ever had in his forty years of living in this world. He was treated like a normal human being by his boss and co-workers instead of being looked down on and mistreated. Sure, sometimes there was a customer that was angry because they still didn’t understand how life insurance worked but there are customers like that in every business. However, how Tou was treated was negligent in comparison to how well he was paid by the Heavenly Association. Literally, his working conditions could be the most inhumane conditions ever and he would still work for the Heavenly Association for the pay he was given.
‘I won’t let you down.’ Tou promised as he hobbled as quickly as he could to the bar he frequented. He had to tell everyone about this opportunity as soon as possible!