At the sight, reverence welled up in Guan Wuzuo and Qiu Tianfeng. Both knelt and bowed. "Greetings, Young Master! To have the honor of serving the Chen Clan is a blessing earned over three lifetimes."
Chen Xiaojun waved for them to rise and said calmly, "There's no need for such ceremony. You two have made something of a name for yourselves in the southwestern part of the city, and your gangs maintain fairly upright standards. That's why we're willing to give you a chance. Compared to those black-hearted, ruthless scoundrels, you certainly deserve more trust."
Guan Wuzuo and Qiu Tianfeng could not help feeling a surge of relief.
They had witnessed firsthand how the Red Sand Gang and the Soaring Dragon Gang had crumbled before a handful of Soul Saints, as though their courtyards had been plowed and their dens swept clean. They now understood the Chen Clan's strength and methods far better-and these people were merely its followers.
Chen Xiaojun pressed further. "Then how many people do you currently have altogether?"
Guan Wuzuo and Qiu Tianfeng exchanged a glance before answering respectfully, "Young Master, after merging our two gangs, we have over five hundred people in total. About a hundred of them are Soul Masters. That doesn't include the prisoners from the Red Sand Gang and the Soaring Dragon Gang whom we defeated tonight."
Gangs were different from sects. The vast majority of a sect's members-at least seventy or eighty percent-were Soul Masters. Only some servants and family members might be ordinary people.
Gangs were precisely the opposite. Eighty or ninety percent were ordinary people, led by the ten or twenty percent who were Soul Masters. They scraped by at the bottom of society and were far weaker than sects.
Chen Xiaojun nodded in understanding and murmured to himself,