The grand hall of the mountain fortress, once a symbol of the Bandit King's bloody and chaotic reign, was now a scene of orderly, if terrified, surrender. Under the watchful, monstrous eyes of Li Yu's beast army and the silent, oppressive presence of Spine, the hundreds of surviving bandits knelt in the courtyard, their weapons in a pile, their future uncertain.
The battle itself had been a footnote. The true conquest began now, and its general was not the quiet, unassuming Li Yu, but the cheerful, portly, and terrifyingly shrewd Guild Master Kui.
Kui, his fawning smile firmly in place, waddled over to the newly christened 'Fat Pig', who had been forced back into his portly human form and was now kneeling beside his former subordinates, a complex master-servant seal glowing faintly on his forehead.
"Now then, Fat Pig," Kui began, his tone that of a disappointed but ultimately forgiving elder brother. "You have made quite a mess of things. A truly lamentable business model. All this smashing and grabbing… it is so… inefficient."
Fat Pig, the former Bandit King, could only lower his head in shame, not daring to meet Kui's gaze. "This one… this one was ignorant, Big Brother."
"Ignorant indeed!" Kui declared cheerfully. "You sit on a mountain of gold, yet you are content to merely count the coins. You have no vision! No ambition! Stealing from caravans is the work of a common thug. A true merchant, a true king of commerce, does not steal from the river; he owns the river, and every fish that swims in it pays him a tax for the privilege!"
He began to walk, his hands clasped behind his back, his voice taking on a mesmerizing, almost hypnotic, quality. He began to paint a picture for the defeated beast sovereign, a vision of a world that Fat Pig, for all his greed, had never even dreamed of.
"Look around you, little brother," Kui said, gesturing to the fortress, the mountains, the very sky. "This is not just a fortress; it is a crossroads. A heart. A place where the trade of the entire northern territory can be made to flow. Why steal from a single caravan when you can build a city here, a trading hub where a thousand caravans a day will willingly, eagerly, pay you for the safety and convenience you provide? Why threaten merchants when you can become the merchant that every other merchant must come to?"
He spoke of trade routes that spanned the continent, of exclusive contracts with powerful sects, of networks of information that could predict market trends years in advance. He spoke of wealth not as piles of gold in a vault, but as a living, flowing river of power, a current that, if properly directed, could make one a true, respected king, not just a feared bandit.
Fat Pig listened, his small, shrewd eyes growing wider and wider with every word. The world Kui was describing was a paradise of profit he had never imagined. His own methods seemed crude, brutish, and laughably small-scale in comparison.
He had been a pig wallowing in a small mud puddle, and this new, mysterious 'big brother' was showing him the ocean. A new, fervent, and utterly avaricious light began to burn in his eyes, a look of pure, unadulterated worship.
"Big Brother," he whispered, his voice trembling with a convert's zeal. "Please… teach me your ways."
Kui's smile widened, seeing the pure, uncut greed in the man's eyes. This was a soul he could mold. "Of course, of course! A talent for acquisition like yours should not be wasted on a small mountain range. It should be on the world stage!" He puffed out his chest. "Your re-education begins immediately. You will not be a mere branch manager. I am appointing you the Vice Guild Master of the entire Golden Shell Guild! You will answer only to me, and together, we will build an empire of wealth that will make the heavens themselves weep with envy!"
The grand title, the promise of unimaginable riches, was the final, perfect hook. Fat Pig's loyalty, born of fear, was now reforged in the fires of pure, boundless greed.
While Kui was busy converting his new subordinate, Li Yu turned his attention to the kneeling bandits. "We need to sort through these people," he said to Kui, his tone pragmatic. "Separate those with useful skills from the common fighters."
He then took out a high-grade communication talisman and crushed it. A moment later, a connection was established. "Xylia," he said calmly. "The situation in the Ironmaw Range is resolved. We have several hundred surrendered bandits. Many are warriors. I need you here to sort the wheat from the chaff for the White Paw Company. Come as quickly as you can." A rough acknowledgment came from the other end, and the connection was cut.
While they waited for Xylia, the recruitment for the Guild began. It was a brutally efficient process. Kui and Fat Pig stood on one side of the courtyard, a perfect pair of shrewd, smiling merchants. One by one, the surrendered bandits were brought forward. The motivations of those who were accepted were mixed.
Some, former merchants and craftsmen, were genuinely grateful for a chance at a new, respectable life. Others, hard-bitten thugs, were merely submitting to a stronger power out of a grudging necessity, their loyalty yet to be truly earned. But for now, they were all judged to be useful enough.
A day later, an Azure Wind Roc descended from the sky, and Xylia strode onto the platform, her presence a wave of cold, martial authority. She surveyed the remaining bandits, and her recruitment began. Her test was simpler.
"You," she would grunt, pointing at a powerfully built warrior. "You have killed before. You have fought for your life. Good. Fight me."
She would suppress her own cultivation to match theirs, and the spar would last exactly ten seconds. Most were swatted aside with a single, contemptuous blow. They were deemed unworthy, their skills sloppy, their courage lacking. They were disarmed, given a small bag of spirit stones for their trouble, and banished from the mountains.
But a select few, those who fought with a desperate, unyielding ferocity, she accepted. "You have fire," she would say, her voice holding a rare, almost imperceptible note of approval. "I can forge you into a real weapon. You belong to the White Paw now."
By the time she was done, the bandit army was gone. In its place were a hundred new employees for the Golden Shell Guild and thirty hard-bitten recruits for the White Paw Company.
With the personnel sorted, Kui's grand vision began to take shape. He and Fat Pig, who now followed his 'big brother' around like an eager, oversized puppy, spent hours poring over maps of the fortress and the surrounding range.
"We will tear down these crude outer walls," Kui declared, making a sweeping gesture. "And build a proper trading post. Stables for a thousand beasts here. A grand inn and teahouse here—with the finest food, of course! Warehouses here, with direct access to a new, wider road we will carve through the pass. We will not be a fortress that repels people; we will be an oasis that draws them in!"
Fat Pig, using his intimate knowledge of the mountains, pointed out hidden springs that could provide fresh water, mineral veins that could be excavated for building materials, and secret, smaller paths that could be expanded into secondary trade routes. The two of them, the ancient, cunning turtle and the greedy, ambitious pig, were a terrifyingly effective pair of commercial strategists.
While they planned, Li Yu focused on another matter. He approached Kui. "That tribute from the Iron Heart Sect. They acted to help the common people. It is not right that they were punished for it."
"Of course, Wise Host! A grave injustice!" Kui agreed immediately. "However," a cunning glint entered his eye, "a direct, full refund would be an admission of wrongdoing on our part, as we are the successors to this territory. It would be… bad for our image. And a bit of a financial waste."
Li Yu simply looked at him, waiting.
"I propose a compromise!" Kui said brightly. "We will return fifty percent of their tribute of 75 percent. A grand, public gesture of goodwill! And we will keep the remaining twenty-five percent as a 'handling and recovery fee.' It is only fair! We did, after all, go to all the trouble of recovering it for them! They are afterall getting back the majority of it"
Li Yu considered this, then gave a small, wry smile. "Acceptable. See to it."
His final task was to solidify the loyalty of his new Vice Guild Master. That night, he brought Fat Pig into the Koi's Sanctuary. The moment the former Bandit King materialized on the central island, his world, for the second time in as many days, was shattered. He stared at the endless, ocean of the Koi spirit, at the mythical beasts that roamed the islands, and he finally, truly, understood the scale of the power he now served.
He fell to his knees, his face a mask of pure awe. He felt the rich, life-affirming energy washing over him, and his own Core Formation cultivation stirred with a new vitality. This place was a cultivation dreamland, a priceless treasure. But as he looked at the boundless potential, his mind did not go to his own power, but to the vision his big brother had painted for him.
'This place… this is the ultimate proof!' he thought, his heart pounding with avarice. 'With a foundation like this, with a master this powerful… Big Brother's dream of an inter-continental commercial empire is not just a possibility, it's a certainty! The wealth… the unimaginable wealth!' The sanctuary, to him, was not an end in itself; it was the ultimate guarantee of future profit.
As he was lost in his greedy reverie, a new presence materialized. It was Khaos, in his true, colossal, galaxy-shelled form. The moment he appeared, an absolute, soul-crushing authority descended. Fat Pig, who had just been feeling like the luckiest man in the world, suddenly felt like a bug.
Remembering a terrified, whispered instruction from Kui just before they entered—"The Grand Elder is the true master of everything. Flatter him like your life depends on it, because it does."—Fat Pig acted instantly. He prostrated himself on the ground, his forehead touching the sacred soil.
"This insignificant, lowly, and utterly worthless Fat Pig kowtows to the magnificent Grand Elder!" he cried out, his voice a torrent of the most shameless, fawning praise he could muster. "Your divine presence illuminates this sacred realm! Your aura is as vast as the heavens, your shell contains the stars themselves! To be in your presence is the greatest, most undeserved honor of this one's miserable life!"
Khaos looked down at the groveling pig, then glanced at Kui, who gave a slight, proud nod. A low, rumbling sound of smug satisfaction vibrated from the colossal crab sovereign. He found the flattery… acceptable.
Li Yu simply shook his head, a sense of deep satisfaction washing over him. His team was growing and each had their own goals and ideals. While they were all working for him, besides perhaps Khaos, he wanted to do what he could to have their goals also become a reality.