Abundance Sect
The Abundance Sect was located in Flame Qilin Prefecture. This sect was also extremely ancient. Though it had no Loose Immortal experts to prop up its prestige, it possessed multiple veteran, old-guard Manifest God cultivators, giving it an exceptionally deep foundation... Moreover, the Abundance Sect lay along an unavoidable trade route from west to east, and Flame Qilin Prefecture was home to many long-established major merchant guilds.
Using this great prefecture, where travelers came from north and south, which spanned the Inner Sea and connected east and west, they conducted every kind of trade. Commerce here was extraordinarily developed, even more prosperous than the neighboring Mashbas City across the sea.
Many western and northern nations transported woolen fabrics, silk goods, pottery, porcelain, and other wares by sea and land, trading them for gold and rare treasures. Through Flame Qilin Prefecture, they also exchanged goods for grain, slaves, and spices from the south of the continent.
Flame Qilin Prefecture, controlled by the Abundance Sect, often produced merchant princes and wealthy magnates. Their businesses not only spread throughout every province of the Western Continent, but also included "silver houses"—that is, banking. One particularly important business was lending money.
Loan sharking had, since ancient times, been the most profitable business under heaven, even more lucrative than no-capital ventures or the flesh trade.
In truth, while the doctrines of the Ten Thousand Spirits Sect permitted trade, they forbade interest. In other words, neither usury nor ordinary lending interest was allowed; "all gains obtained without labor or through speculation and trickery" were deemed sins.
Tianqi Holy City likewise upheld this law, explicitly banning all acts of collecting interest on loans.
Yet lending and usury were not so easily outlawed. Furthermore, during the conflict with the Shura Sect, sects across the land had borrowed