After spending less than a morning at Pride House, Li Wei had ultimately returned laden with gains.
At that moment, he sat in the second-floor office of his own Hogg Workshop, sipping tea newly swiped from Pride House while reading two thick dossiers of intelligence.
They had come respectively from the Xia Lan Chamber of Commerce and Kaierben's Harpers branch, [Moonstars].
This also meant that Water-Drawing City's two greatest "magnates" and actual "rulers" had both tacitly approved this operation and firmly taken his side.
But that did not mean they could confidently claim that no accidents would arise, because these evil forces that had entrenched themselves in Water-Drawing City for centuries were no less formidable.
For instance, the intelligence showed one branch of the thieves' guild—the [Shadow Thieves].
Among their Council of Six, their highest-ranking leader was most likely a legendary rogue.
And the thieves' guild alone had as many as nine branches in Water-Drawing City!
Apart from the individually strongest [Shadow Thieves], there were also the [Monster Guild], [Thieves' War], [Smuggling Alliance], [Spy Network], [Infiltrators Guild], [Assassins Guild], [Street Gangs], and [Traditional Thieves Guild].
Of these, the [Smuggling Alliance] possessed the greatest influence. Having long monopolized Water-Drawing City's most lucrative trades—Energy Potions, military equipment, undead materials, fencing stolen goods, money laundering, and more—it was the wealthiest, and thus the largest, with the most mid- and High-Tier Professionals.
On top of that, it had murky ties with the Church of the Goddess of Torture. Those two were therefore Li Wei's primary targets for this purge.
The other guilds wielded far less influence, and ordinarily, they even fought each other over territory and interests.
But if they learned in advance that Water-Drawing City's Masked Lords were gathering forces to move against them, Li Wei would wager they would band together again,