Destiny in Cinders

I see. So the local owners of capital have teamed up with those in power in an attempt to usurp the common folk's property and become a hegemon. An Jing nodded and pointed his blade at the old man, causing him to tremble. "You're attempting to distract from the fact that you actually have a cooperative relationship with Bejeweled. Your group was made up of the hunters and foragers who were familiar with the mountain terrain, so it's also a chance for you to eliminate your competitors. I'm guessing that you've forced the hunters and foragers who don't want to work with the traders guild to leave, or either killed them, right?"

"That's correct..." The old hunter kowtowed on the ground so hard that he began to bleed. "We were led astray by our greed! We're getting what we deserve! It's divine punishment!"

"Just deserts indeed." An Jing didn't care about the remorse of the old hunter. "So, your unit operated independently in the mountains, exploiting the beast tide. It's a small unit because you'll be able to remain hidden with these numbers and tight knit enough to prevent Bejeweled from further dividing and conquering you. Yet, that also made you a good target for the True Fiend Cult, who eventually usurped your group like a cuckoo bird. After that, you got completely controlled and worked as skinwalkers hiding in the vicinity of Brokeblade Mountain.

"After that, the orders from Bejeweled got even more outrageous. They only used you as hired muscle initially to swallow up all the property near Brokeblade Mountain, but now, they ordered you to attack wayguard supply convoys. Why are they doing this? Do they want to cut this area off from all contact with the outside world?"

The first thing that occurred to An Jing was that the Bejeweled Traders Guild was working with the True Fiend Cult to make Riverside a blood sacrifice. He soon cast that idea away; Bejeweled was nothing more than a greedy company. They consolidated all the property they managed to snatch up during the beast tide to establish a monopoly. They were looking for profit and domination over resources, and they were already about to succeed without the help of the True Fiend Cult. If they really wanted a blood sacrifice, there would be no point in buying out property before they resorted to forceful tactics in the first place.

An Jing also had his guesses about the True Fiend Cult's objectives. Considering how the greater heavenly fiend sealed in Direlife Canyon also had designs for Yvelbane, the heavenly fiends must somehow be aware that one of Yvelbane's fragments was in the vicinity of Brokeblade Mountain.

The snow calamity and barbarian invasion had caused Grand Chen's officials to retreat from the area, leaving it a lawless land. The beast tide also sealed off the martialists and normal citizens' movements in the region, leaving only those who joined the beast diversionary units with legitimate reasons to be out and about in the mountains. It also helped that the hunters and foragers' familiarity with the terrain helped them spot odd phenomena that resulted from Yvelbane's fragment.

An Jing couldn't be sure that Bejeweled was completely ignorant about the True Fiend Cult's agenda. At the very least, both sides were making use of each other to achieve their own goals.

There were also diversionary squads that weren't on the payroll of Bejeweled, supported by other players behind the scenes. The hidden factions behind them could form a powerful conglomerate of traders and martialists that would rival Bejeweled once the beast tide ended, threatening their monopoly. Naturally, Bejeweled wouldn't take this sitting down, so they offered the True Fiend Cult some supplies and a convenient cover identity to assume in exchange for their help to wipe out the competition. Even if the deaths of the competing martialists were discovered, they could just use the True Fiend Cult as a scapegoat.

That being the case, Bejeweled had to assume total control of the movement of supplies across the area to hinder the other factions. So, they had the True Fiend Cult who posed as diversionary squad members to cut off all shipments to Riverside so that they would be the sole controller of supplies, allowing them to consolidate even more power within the city!

It was an ambitious move indeed. An Jing was certain that officials from Grand Chen were providing support for this move from behind the scenes as well. There was no way that Bejeweled would dare act with such impunity otherwise. There could be more details to this scandal, but An Jing simply had no access to them.

"Xu Tai, you're a local here, right? Do you know how Riverside is currently doing?" An Jing asked the grimacing wayguard.

"Yes." Xu Tai snapped out of it as if he had awakened from a dream. The moment the old hunter mentioned working with Bejeweled, he was tempted to draw his blade to hack him to pieces. However, he suppressed his rage and turned to the terrified hunter, before calmly saying, "Strictly speaking, I'm not one of the cityfolk. There's quite a sizable population of people who live outside Riverside's walls, mostly the poorer folk or fishermen families. I'm from one of those humbler families.

"My parents often worked themselves too hard and passed a few years ago from fatigue and other maladies. I left the city since and never really wanted to go back. But from what I can remember, it was a rather decent city. Though the people living outside the walls are poor, they are simple folk who are more than happy to give me a whole fish if I give them a helping hand. One fish a day was what nourished my body enough to qualify me for a spot in the martial academy.

"While the richer cityfolk like to lord over others, the martial academy in the city didn't discriminate against someone like me from the outer city. In fact, those from better-off families didn't even see me as their rivals and instead wanted to recruit me to work for them. I was often treated to nice meals at their expense. Right before I returned home to get rid of those bandits all those years back, they even gave me this blade."

Xu Tai patted the long blade hanging at his waist, which was an arcane artifact. Even though it was incomparable to An Jing's violetshine-gold maces or Ocean Domination, it had still been enchanted with two spells, making it a mid-tier artifact.

The wayguard shook his head with a complicated look on his face. "While I wouldn't want to be grouped in with them, I don't wish to slander them either. I didn't think that they were fundamentally bad people. But from what we just learned..."

"That's right. Things don't seem so good." An Jing got up and opened the door to let some cold air into the room, completely ignoring the old man's shivers. He looked at Riverside and said, "Bejeweled probably wouldn't miss this chance to fleece the citizens of Riverside for their wealth either. If my mother's in the city..."

He fell silent for a moment. "How much do you know about Bejeweled?"

"Well, this is puzzling for me too," Xu Tai said with a furrowed brow. "Bejeweled is a large traders guild from the prefectural capital. I heard they have people in the court too, sages in fact. Why would a faction of this magnitude come all the way to a backwater city to establish a monopoly?"

"What kind of goods do they typically trade in?"

"All kinds of things. They even offer mercenarial services. They have quite a lot of martialists on their payroll."