As the largest underground organization in the entire western continent of Coriel, the Shadow Thieves Guild had no shortage of eyes and ears spread across every stronghold.
And in a place like the Trade District of Water-Drawing City, where fat sheep abounded, there was naturally no shortage of "golden fingers" weaving through the crowds every day. Thus, confirming that Li Wei and the others had visited Pride House three days ago was hardly difficult.
Once this news was swiftly corroborated by the reports flowing in from their informants, the Shadow Thieves Guild's upper ranks could no longer sit still.
A conclusion that even Li Wei himself had never anticipated took shape through sheer imagination among the Shadow Thieves Guild's leadership:
Xia Lan Veloss, Master of the Xia Lan Chamber of Commerce, was finally going to pass judgment on Lord Kaierben's Blackstaff Merchant Guild!
After all, Kaierben's grand and highly public pursuit of Xia Lan Veloss a century ago had been witnessed by quite a few nobles.
And the outcome was no secret either: Kaierben had been sent packing with a sum of "repatriation money." Whether because love had turned to hate or because he saw profit in it, after successfully living off Laeral Silverhand, he opened the Blackstaff Merchant Guild and began a century-long commercial standoff with the Xia Lan Chamber of Commerce.
The relationship between the two was somewhat like Pickpocket against White Affairs, Stab-One against Geng Shuai Bo, and Silly-Bun King against Crotch-Seller on Blue Star.
Whenever the Xia Lan Chamber of Commerce released some new product, the Blackstaff Merchant Guild would invariably "learn from" it and produce an entry-level knockoff.
So, in the eyes of northern merchants, the fact that Xia Lan Veloss still had not crushed that shameless old disgrace Kaierben to death was already an