8 Chapter 8 (1/2)

Today was Shen Yue's eighth birthday, and he was quite chuffed with himself. Just over a year ago he had sowed the seeds of three organizations, and they have now grown into dominant powers within Glory City. Of course, as with all things, there will be a few 'bad apples'. But these were simple enough to take care of.

One of the blacksmiths tried to sell the enchanting inscriptions to the Secret Treasure Pavilion, thinking that because he had reached the black-gold rank, his mysterious employer would be unable to touch him.

Regrettably, when the meeting was taking place, fifteen extremely powerful experts annihilated everyone in the room, plundered them, and then vanished. The only thing the city guard found at the gruesome scene, was a Dark Guild mark! Shen Yue had no problem throwing the blame onto others.

The remaining two blacksmiths knew that it was not the work of the Dark Guild, as the traitorous smith's head had been left in their workshop. Next to the head was a pile of coins and the instructions to keep up the good work! Safe to say, they were remarkably diligent in making the Heavenly Crafting Guild the most prestigious guild in the city.

Shen Yue had obtained fifty young adults from the poor population and pumped them full of techniques, equipment, and resources. When he recruited for his Heavenly Crafting Guild, he also found a worthy family to be his personal smith. With countless resources, they rose to the black-gold rank before any of the members of the Celestial Brotherhood. When those four brothers rebelled, it was these fifty youths that tracked them down, a different team for each one of the four targets. This was to show the group what betrayal delivers.

Yang Xin had not disappointed him and after nine months of preparation, she walked into Saint Judgement Hall with her twenty alchemists to register her guild and pills. That single move was the first blow to the inevitable downfall of the Alchemy Association.

Shen Yue had given her enough demon spirit coins to quietly train up twenty youths into capable apprentices. They did not have the knowledge required to pass the tests of the association, but they were disciplined in the pill refining of the different pills sold by their guild. Their cultivation had also advanced to the gold rank, making their task much easier.

The Celestial Brotherhood was recognized as the most powerful presence in Glory City, with its original twenty-one members at peak black-gold. For some weird reason, they could not advance to legendary rank almost as if something was stopping them! The most popular opinion was that the legend rank was just too difficult to achieve with their red soul realm.

After their first successful hunt, they were directed to take squires. They could choose anyone, but if the squire betrayed the guild, it was their duty to put them down and place the severed head of the traitor in the Hall of Villains!

Shen Yue really was quite satisfied with how his projects had turned out. His mercenary company practically ran itself, with Su Qiang there to resolve the major problems. Yang Xin was recruiting only the cream of the crop from the Alchemy Association and promising youths from the commoners. She still hadn't found any reliable subordinates with the ability to help her manage the guild, so she was run a bit ragged. The Heavenly Crafting Guild only supplied the market with quality bronze and silver rank weapons and armour, with the exception of the Celestial Brotherhood. They received the highest quality black-gold equipment the smiths' could make exclusively.

This blatant favouritism and the sudden emergence of three major organizations with peak masters raised many questions. Even Blind Freddy could see the relation between them, but there was no link beside the exclusive deal between the Celestial Brotherhood and the Heavenly Crafting Guild.

The patriarchs of the most influential Families in Glory City had been on high alert since these groups had suddenly appeared. Yet only the mercenary group had an unknown leader, everyone else had been recognised as a citizen of Glory City. They had all emerged with too much strength, even if they had desired to do something it was far too late now.

If a family produces a gold rank demon spiritualist, they can become an aristocrat family; if they produce a black gold-rank demon spiritualist, they can become a noble family; and if they produce three black-gold rank demon spiritualist or a legend rank spiritualist, they can become a major family.

Before Shen Yue disrupted the balance of Glory City, there had only been three major Families, seven Noble Families and twenty Aristocratic Families. Anyone of his three companies could rival a major Family and then there was also his own Family.

He had not publically announced his Nemesis Family, but its members already dwarfed his other businesses' might. He had gone through three recruitment drives, each time selecting fifty guards.

-Su Qiang - Lord Chamberlain, 1- star Legend

-Zhang Jing - Master of the Household, 3-star Legend

-Su Mei - Maid, 2-star Legend

Guards rank:

- 1 x 3-star Legend

- 4 x 2-star Legend

- 45 x 1-star Legend

- 50 x Gold

- 50 x Bronze

Other than Yang Xin and his Family servants, he had placed a seal on his other minions to prevent them from reaching legend rank. It was quite an ingenious design in its simplicity. It was a switch fused into their loyalty mark and cultivation technique, that activated when they reached the 5-star black-gold rank. It made them unable to absorb qi as if they were back using their original techniques.

Even though it was his birthday, he still finished his morning training. Since he couldn't absorb any soul force without becoming a bronze rank, he did the next best thing, focusing on control and strength of his soul force. This was done by using his upgraded version of Secret Soul Technique. Other than this, he kept his fitness levels up and did some mild bodybuilding without damaging his young body.

But now it was time for his birthday present, treasure! It was time to raid the Ancient Orchid City Ruins for loot. Su Mei had already arranged everything and was just waiting on him. Stepping out of his private courtyard, he looked around his compound, please with what he saw.

Immediately after the Su family reached the black-gold rank, he had used his substantial fortune to create a massive compound in the poor section of Glory City. It was easy enough with the money he threw around, from relocating families to paying workers, he made sure to compensate them well, keeping his public sentiment high.