"We'll part our ways here, Master Wu, I need to report to my superiors, but I expect that I'll be seeing you soon", Chen Hui spoke coming up to Wu Long who calmly watched other passengers descend from the vessel they were still on.
"It seems you are quite confident about finding me in this city", Wu Long had an amused look in his eyes, since the former didn't bother asking where they will be staying.
"What's the difficulty there? I just need to find a ruckus", Chen Hui shrugged his shoulders.
Wu Long didn't press him about evading the answer with a half-joke, simply replying "Contrary to what you're implying, I am not someone who causes trouble all the time. It was all peaceful and quiet throughout most of our journey, wasn't it? Before that pirate situation, for an entire week, you weren't even conscious of my existence"
"That might be true, although I highly doubt your first statement. But in this case, the problem's not you, it's this place. Don't get me wrong, I love my city. But it is a city obsessed with a pecking order, with a chip on almost every second-third shoulder, and so everyone has to bow down to someone all the time. As long as you don't stick your head out, it is a wonderful place... however, you're not someone who would grovel just so things go smoothly... I can tell that much. It was peaceful the rest of the journey because I was putting out all the sparks that could've lit the whole place on fire if they got to you, but now...", Chen Hui made a heavy sigh, shaking his head and looking at the city.
"You can continue putting those sparks out then", Wu Long chuckled.
"What am I, your personal firefighter?", Captain Chen grumbled.
"Relax, I don't plan to cause much trouble", Wu Long tapped Chen Hui's shoulder a few times, which for some reason didn't give the latter any reassurance, on the contrary, worsening his anxiety.
'Not planning something doesn't mean it won't happen' he inwardly protested.
But there wasn't much he could do, so Chen Hui simply made a hand and fist salute, and led his Imperial Guards to descend the vessel.
Wu Long's group left the Beast of Burden behind shortly after. And then were greeted by a familiar face as soon as they came onto the pier.
Butler Bang greeted Kwon Qianhong with a nod which the latter mirrored.
He then turned to Wu Long, "Welcome to the city, Boss. Please follow me to your accommodations", turning to show the way.
He then complained in a lower voice while walking next to Butler Bang, "It's quite pricey... but Old Yen said it had to be a good inn with a nice view..."
Butler Bang sighed, inwardly grateful that it was Old Yen who had to go through the trouble of dealing with Kwon Qianhong's protests about the inn prices this time around.
"How was it?", Wu Long asked.
"A good harvest, Boss. I wouldn't say we got much in terms of coin off those thugs, but there was plenty to sell off", Kwon Qianhong made a grin that said he didn't yet reach a part he was most proud of.
"So, what 'powerful relics of old' did you sell?", Wu Long smiled, shaking his head.
"I knew you would understand, Boss", Kwon Qianhong's expression became even more delighted, "I found just the right shady merchant to become the best of friends with, and together we struck it rich in the shady part of the Sky Harbor District with this loot, and a little bit of acting from yours truly before we had to close shop and disappear. I mean gold Boss, hundreds of gold"
"What friend?", Kwon Qianhong made a confused expression at first, and then a realization gradually lit in his eyes, "Ah...you mean that shady merchant that I'm barely an acquaintance with? He's quite experienced in these things, so he disappeared right after we were done with our business"
"What a short lived friendship", Wu Long commented with an amused look in his eyes.
"Friendship? I don't even know him at all. We barely ever talked", Kwon Qianhong shook his head as if hearing some nonsence.
"So you've made plenty of enemies amid the gangs of this district then", Wu Long decided not to pursue it and simply continue with the earlier discussion.
"Low-level gangs, Boss. Of course we didn't mess with anyone with actual standing in the city as a whole", Kwon Qianhong specified, "Besides Old Yen and Guanting used that to gain credit with their long-time rivals, you see we targeted gangs ruling one specific neighborhood, inciting infighting over which of them would be the top gang by bolstering the confidence of each small gang leader with their new 'powerful relic'. Of course, it meant we had to operate on quite a tight schedule, so we could've made more money if we had more time and didn't concentrate on that neighborhood, but then Old Yen and Guanting wouldn't have been able to take advantage of that"
"So right now there's a war raging between the gangs of those two neighborhoods, and the one winning owes their win to you three because you sabotaged the other side", Wu Long clarified.
"Yes. Gangs of both neighborhoods control very minor parts of the commercial shipping port located that way which none of the bigger fish are interested in, basically fighting over scraps", Kwon Qianhong nodded, pointing to the side, where in a far-off distance Beasts of Burden carrying cargo were loading and unloading various goods, "Old Yen said it still might come in handy for the Soaring Feather Trading Company later on"
"Are you sure you won't completely break the balance of powers there?", Wu Long asked since big shifts in local power were not exactly the interests that he pursued.
"According to Old Yen, quite soon the other groups of gangs around them will start circling like vultures, waiting for the two to get exhausted, so it won't last much longer, in fact, it already started to fizzle out yesterday. It'll end with one side gaining just a little bit more territory than before, if a third party manages to get in at the right time when it's not completely over, maybe they will get a small bite off of that, but not much will change overall", Kwon Qianhong shrugged.
"Quite a busy week for you", Wu Long was genuinely impressed at how they milked the situation for all the benefit they could get from it.
"Two weeks, Boss. We didn't get much info from that pirate lookout, he knew next to nothing substantial, so we decided to speed up and get a bigger head-start here to make up for that", Kwon Qianhong sighed as he spoke about the pirate lookout that turned out to be a waste of time and effort.
"You've done exceptionally well, above and beyond what was asked", Wu Long sincerely praised, causing Kwon Qianhong to almost shine with joy. Of course, true to himself, a smug smile crept onto his face right after.
"What of the Armor? Any insights?", Wu Long then asked further.
"Ah, Old Yen has more on that, but it's quite interesting", Kwon Qianhong's eyes lit up, "As far as we know, there are several noble families who own Blacksmith-related businesses, all competing with each other and all regularly taking orders from the Wei Dynasty Imperial Guard Corps. The design of unfolding and retracting armor is used by all of them, just with minor tweaks and variants that each of them put into them. We didn't manage to pinpoint who of them used it first either"
"Is the Rou Family perhaps one of them?", Wu Long asked, inwardly thinking that there was no way his luck was this bad.
"No", Kwon Qianhong had a slightly surprised look as not only Wu Long but several beauties around him sighed with relief, "The families I am talking about are mainly Wuliang, Zili, Kai, Bei, and Shan"
"Kai and Shan families, huh", Wu Long chuckled, not sure if he could say he completely dodged the bad luck after all.
They discussed smaller details as they got into a large carriage pulled by a Beasts of Burden which resembled a water buffalo, except for being 3 meters tall with a green hue in its horns and external bone armor on its sides and lower parts of legs.
The carriage took them across one of the long bridges to the central part of the city, arriving at an inn which was on the smaller side, but was located on the edge of the city along the waterfall, thus allowing a clear view of the vast plains with large lakes and rivers below, as well as the two suns setting over the horizon in the evenings.