If that was all there was to them, the Hatchet Gang would have been annihilated long ago. Unfortunately, mortals weren’t the only ones to join. Many cultivators would reach a plateau in their training, finding themselves unable to progress any further. They could keep on struggling for the rest of their lives, or turn to other pursuits like professions, building clans, or training disciples. Everyone is not so pure hearted. There are many who would grow frustrated and turn to selfish pursuits like power, wealth, and women. They could join the Hatchet Gang and gain a terrifying weapon. They would lose their remaining potential, but still retain all their skills and abilities. Thankfully, there weren’t many who gave it all up that way, but there would also be outcasts, the downtrodden, misanthropes, and the mentally ill. At least there were more than enough of them to keep the Hatchet Gang a force to be reckoned with.

“I am familiar with the Hatchet Gang, but what is the Artful Life Alliance?”

“The Artful Life Alliance is a group of small sects and clans that have banded together to form a second rate power. The Hatchet Gang is very troublesome, but the Artful Life Alliance are just in it for the money. I’m pretty sure they like having Lionheart Town in their debt because it makes it difficult for me to order them around.”

Sage nodded, “I see. So, if you take back the land from them then you’ll be causing problems with your creditors. This seems easy enough, we just have to pay off the debts and everything will be fine, right?”

“Hah, you make it sound so simple! Where are we going to get a million Spirit Stones?”

Sage heard the number and he laughed, “Wow, what a bill! What was the debt before you took over?”

Wu Chang coughed with embarrassment, “Eh, it was 700,000 before I took over two decades ago. I also tried to make a big change and borrowed from the Artful Life Alliance to fund it. The prior debts to the Hatchet Gang were not caused by me, I inherited them with the City Lord position.”

There was no sense in asking how the debts had transferred over. The Hatchet Gang weren’t the type to negotiate, and when Wu Chang was new the Hatchet Gang was probably more than strong enough to turn the whole city into a river of blood. Even now, they could likely cause immense bloodshed if Wu Chang crossed them. They might not be able to defeat Wu Chang and the city guards in a straight up fight, but there was still probably hundreds of them in Lionheart Town. The Hatchet Gang was also very troublesome because when they were bullied they would band together and members from other towns and cities would travel weeks to pick a fight. A lone cultivator would care little for such threats, but anyone with an organization backing them or mortals they cared about would not dare to oppose them or the Hatchet Gang might go after their friends and families.

“Smart thinking. Whoever got involved with the Hatchet Gang in the first place was quite the fool.”

Wu Chang looked regretful, “It was that fool from before me. When I came after him, he tried to get help from the Fu Clan, but they ignored him. So, he took out a huge loan to finance a war with me. Only later did I learn who he got the loan from and the fact that he took the loan as the City Lord and not with his personal identity. The Hatchet Gang came to me after they took over and forced me into acknowledging responsibility for the city’s debt.”

Sage pondered over the situation for a little while while drinking some tea. It would take him some time to raise that much money. They had fully equipped the currently active Jade Horde with the new equipment already, but they were far from fulfilling the quota for the ten thousand soldiers he wanted to have in the Jade Horde. On top of that, they would also need to keep a stockpile of reserve weapons, armor, and an immense number of crossbow bolts. At the same time they were also devoting a small portion of their production capabilities to making weapons both for the general public as well as the Cloudmetal Consortium. They were all consigned to the Cloudmetal Consortium, so their distribution plans were extremely simple.

What a shame. Even though we’ll have all these new recruits soon, I’m going to have to shift production to an equal split between our own weapons and those for sale.

It pained him to slow down the equipping of the Jade Horde, but with his other plans for expanding the information network, he would also need a greater income to support it. He might as well shift to more commercial output now. Thinking this far he took out a pair of Red Crane Messages and wrote out some orders. Then he sent in some of his Qi and the two pieces of red paper folded themselves up into little origami cranes and flew out of the room. One was sent to Black Saber and the other flew to Fang Gang, the first official refining apprentice. In the last few years, Fang Gang had officially become a blacksmith and Sage had him working in a supervisory position at the ‘factory’. There were other blacksmith’s that had been hired from outside that had more stars than Fang Gang, but Sage trusted Fang Gang more as he had officially joined the Jade Horde and started from the very bottom. Outside contractors were not as trustworthy, since they were just doing it for the money. It would take far more dedication from them if they wanted to earn his trust.

It would take some time for the production lines to adjust, and it would require even more before they could raise the money they required. In the meantime, Sage finished his tea and leaned towards Wu Chang.

“Now that you’ve become one of the Seven Stars you can send as few or many as you like on jobs. Of course, if the jobs are purely for your own personal interests, you’ll have to start compensating the men from your own pockets if you use them too often. That said, what’s the job you need them to complete? Paying the debts will take some time, so in the meanwhile, how can I help?”

Wu Chang took a slow and deep breath, releasing it with laborious slowness, “I did not want to get involved with my position as a City Lord. You will probably think of me as a fool, but I believe slavery is wrong! I’ve already cracked down on all the slavers in Lionheart Town and I’ve ‘encouraged’ many of the merchants based here to put pressure on all of them in Jade Spirit County. Unfortunately, even as a City Lord my influence can only reach so far. I want the Jade Horde to hunt all of the slave catchers in 10,000 Wave Province.”

Sage was surprised. He even let it show on his face as he looked at the man across from him. Wu Chang looked like a very energetic old man, his hair was white and pulled back into a small bun that was hidden under a small coronet on the top of his head. It was the hairstyle of the nobility, or at least their equivalent in this world. The coronet they wore would correspond to their position. Wu Chang was only a city lord with no other affiliation so his coronet was barely more than a small metal band to hide his hair, while the leaders of first rate powers would have small crowns with large ornaments, jewels, or sculptures. It was like a tiny crown worn on their hair bun instead of across the temples.

“I also hate slavers. Allow me to handle this problem. Take your time to integrate yourself and your men into the Jade Horde.”