"The Xishui Alliance is growing more overbearing by the day. With the Holy Spirit Cult behind them, they've become increasingly brazen. They even considered unifying Mingdu's Underground World at one point, and their tone a few days ago was downright arrogant. If this goes on much longer, I'm afraid we..." the subordinate beside her said hesitantly.
"They want to reshuffle the underground powers. When that happens, there won't be an Ordinary Alliance anymore," Shangguan Wei'er said helplessly.
The three major underground powers each claimed their own slice of the cake.
The Ordinary Alliance controlled Mingdu's entire sex industry, making it the underground power closest to the surface.
The Aodu Chamber of Commerce controlled organizations such as assassins' guilds, thieves' guilds, and various criminal gangs, making its living through protection rackets, assassinations, theft, and other dirty work.
The Xishui Alliance's operations were far more high-end by comparison. It dealt in the Underground World's most profitable businesses—drugs and arms—and "moonlighted" in human trafficking.
With the Xishui Alliance pressing them at every turn, the Ordinary Alliance and the Aodu Chamber of Commerce were showing signs of joining forces against it.
However, their respective backers, the Sun Moon Military and the Sun Moon Nobility, were clearly less formidable than the Holy Spirit Cult. Their businesses also had little overlap, and compromises between the powerful figures behind them had allowed them to coexist peacefully until now.
All three underground powers dabbled in reselling rare metals. After all, the trade offered enormous returns for a tiny investment. As long as they could infiltrate the mining channels, their costs were extremely low, while the profits exceeded those of almost anything else.
To give a simple example, one rare metal, soul-forging silver, had an exceptionally high affinity for soul power. It could be incorporated into any metal, improving