Although Shangguan Cangxing warranted attention, the man truly in charge here was Lin Yi, steward of the outer household at the An Prince's Mansion.
That position carried considerable authority within the An Prince's Mansion. Most importantly, the indispensable qualification for a steward was the An Prince's trust.
The fact that they had sent this man to negotiate with him showed how seriously they took this cooperation.
This also dispelled Fang Yunhua's greatest concern.
"Young Sect Leader Fang, as for how to forge this bond, both sides are crossing the river by feeling for stones." After exchanging pleasantries, Lin Yi went straight to the point. "Before I came, His Highness reminded me that we must strike the right balance.
"Too tight would be bad, but too loose would be meaningless. I would like to hear your thoughts, Young Sect Leader."
Clearly, over the past few days, the An Prince's Mansion had dug up everything there was to know about Mount Hua and Fang Yunhua. Even in the memorial Second Master Jin had submitted, he had blurred Fang Yunhua's role as much as possible to avoid making him seem too monstrous a talent.
Still, some of his everyday exploits made it clear that this young sect leader had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
"As it happens, I have been planning something lately." Fang Yunhua raised his eyes to Lin Yi. "Consider it a greeting gift to cement our cooperation."
"Oh?" Lin Yi's interest was piqued. After some careful thought, he asked earnestly, "The Beggar Gang?"
Since even Wuhua had traced the earliest source back to Shaanxi, the An Prince's Mansion could naturally do so with its resources. Its fief lay in a part of Henan bordering Shaanxi, making it all the easier to discover the source of the public uproar now provoking heated discussion throughout the martial world.
Fang Yunhua nodded slightly.
"Barring any surprises, Nangong Ling, the leader of the Beggar Gang, has little time left."
"Was it you..."
"No, no, no. We are both great sects of the martial world. How could Mount Hua strike at the esteemed leader of the Beggar Gang without cause? It is simply that his present circumstances have placed him in a predicament, and he happens to have a particularly ruthless elder brother."
Fang Yunhua concealed nothing further. His Western Peak Sword Emerges, Myriad Mountains Turn Cold plan had officially begun, and he now needed the authorities' power to cut away certain variables that might forcibly interfere.
Naturally, the benefits he could offer in exchange would be carved from the flesh of the world's foremost gang. Apart from Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi, he had already relinquished the Beggar Gang's branches in all other regions as food for those keen-nosed wolves to fight over and tear into at will.
As for who seized more and who seized less, that would depend on their own abilities.
Those who gained the initiative, however, would almost certainly eat their fill. After all, the worth of the world's foremost gang was not to be underestimated.
After hearing his arrangements, Lin Yi admired Fang Yunhua's plan, but still raised a crucial question.
"Even if your arrangements allow us to seize considerable benefits from the Beggar Gang for now, Young Sect Leader, the enmity this creates may erupt afterward. Given the An Prince's Mansion's standing, we would not overlook future risks for a little money."
"You need not worry about that either, because we will be both the villains and the good guys."
While Fang Yunhua had spent this time eating, drinking, and enjoying himself in Capital City, Mount Hua had not been idle. On one hand, they had been managing public opinion; on the other, they had been refining and supplementing the details of his plan.
During several rounds of simulations, however, the elders who seemed to do nothing but eat their fill had also spotted something they could exploit.
Ever since Nangong Ling had placed Ren Ci under house arrest, Ren Ci had lost much of his control over the gang. Nangong Ling, who relayed orders in his stead, had used that time to recruit trusted followers, greatly weakening oversight of the gang as a whole.
The simplest example was Nangong Ling's recall of the White Jade Demon after becoming gang leader. More than ten years earlier, that man had suddenly given free rein to his bestial nature at Tiger Hill in Suzhou, raping and murdering seventeen virgins in one go.
After such beastly conduct, a nod of acceptance from the gang leader alone should never have made it so easy for him to rejoin the Beggar Gang.
Yet the White Jade Demon's return had gone smoothly. Even with Nangong Ling insisting on it, the gang's elders should, by rights, have united in vehement opposition. Anyone with even a shred of conscience would refuse to tolerate such a beast.
That small detail revealed the larger picture: in recent years, the Beggar Gang had begun rotting from top to bottom. One could not expect a group of men armed with martial prowess but little education to restrain themselves through morality.
Moreover, for various reasons, neither Ren Ci nor Nangong Ling had been able to attend to the strict enforcement of gang rules. Once a gap opened, some men became increasingly lawless.
Of course, the Beggar Gang could not have decayed to the point where beasts were everywhere. That was precisely the opening Mount Hua's elders had said they could exploit.
First, Mount Hua had a feud with the Huangshan Family, and Nangong Ling, the Beggar Gang's leader, was the son of that family's sole surviving orphan. He had also used the Beggar Gang's strength to retaliate against Mount Hua. Even if Mount Hua struck back, no one in the martial world could fault them.
This step secured reason on their side first.
Second, Mount Hua would target only the Beggar Gang's evildoers. A moment's thought made it obvious that, to strengthen surveillance of Mount Hua, Nangong Ling and Wuhua would station trusted men in Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi.
With the prestige those two had built, most of the men they could order to handle their private affairs would have dirty hands or greedy hearts. Anyone with even a few principles would keep out of this rotten mess, which would make it all the easier for Mount Hua to root them out.
Here, the White Jade Demon, whom Nangong Ling had readmitted to the Beggar Gang, deserved another mention. He was simply the perfect example.
This step also secured righteousness on their side.
Finally, to prevent matters from truly escalating into a fight to the death between Mount Hua and the Beggar Gang, the elders had, with Fang Yunhua's approval, secretly contacted the Lone Wanderer of Ten Thousand Miles, Dai Duxing, whose seniority surpassed even Ren Ci's. (He had appeared in The Painted Brow Bird Arc.)
He hated evil as bitterly as a sworn enemy and loved nothing more than standing up against injustice. Thus, he wandered without a fixed destination year-round, even traveling into desolate wilderness, simply to see what injustices existed in the world.
They explained the crucial points to him, making no attempt to hide Mount Hua's objectives.
In particular, they emphasized that Nangong Ling's blood was half Little Japanese.
This great expert, whose standing in the Beggar Gang was equivalent to a supreme elder's, truly became so furious that he nearly passed out. Wandering all over as he did, he had never imagined that in just a few short years, the Japanese devils would steal the Beggar Gang's home out from under it and reduce it to this ghastly state.
Even if he returned to the Beggar Gang now, his prestige would likely be insufficient to clean up this rotten mess. Once people's desires had been awakened, the sudden appearance of some old fellow of high seniority would not make them relinquish the greed in their hearts so easily.
Ultimately, after some discussion, Dai Duxing agreed to cooperate with Mount Hua for the sake of the Beggar Gang's centuries-old reputation.
Once the situation was settled, Mount Hua would also help Dai Duxing pin every rotten mess on Nangong Ling and the evil Little Japanese, declaring it a vast overseas conspiracy against the martial world of the Central Plains.
Of course, that was indeed the truth.
Tianfeng Shisilang had harbored ill intentions from the start. He had exploited Ren Ci's and Master Tianfeng's respect for righteous men to successfully plant these two enormous hidden bombs.
During this period, Dai Duxing would also gather the disciples who still upheld the gang's rules and cherished justice. As for those beyond saving, they would simply be treated as festering sores a patient had cut away to heal his body.
At the same time, Dai Duxing tacitly refrained from mentioning the assets they would lose. This was the price the entire gang had to pay after its previous leader, Ren Ci, had possessed eyes yet failed to see, choosing to adopt Nangong Ling.
This step was benevolence: rather than exterminating them to the last, they would actively leave the other side a path to survival.
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