The sect members of the Beggar Sect met on the full moon of every month. It was here that Sect Points were awarded to the members and resources were redistributed. Sect Points could be accumulated by working in less desirable areas or for reporting information. They could be spent in order to get permission to beg in more prosperous areas, for food, and, for Gu Masters, for cultivation resources.
By the time the second meeting came around, Fang Yuan had about 3,000 people working under him in this sect.
"Good, good, good!" Fang Yuan said. "It is good to see that more of you have joined and that our numbers increase day by day. I am pleased to announce that there will be additional rewards added to the Contribution Board. One of them is the Dog Beating Staff Technique."
Many of them were curious to know about this. "The Dog Beating Staff Technique is an ancient martial arts scroll - a signature of our sect!"
In reality, this was just a martial arts form that Fang Yuan had taken with the benefit of his reincarnated knowledge that would be developed about two hundred years in the future. It was somewhat acceptable for defending oneself if all one had was a rudimentary method and no gu worms, hence why Fang Yuan had once taken an interest in such.
While a Gu Master without gu worms was worse off than most mortals, a staff could be handy and was easily obtained. It could also shift the flow of a battle in a pinch.
Now though, he simply changed the name and passed it off as his own.
"Additionally, there is another mission that you all can undertake for bonus Sect Points," Fang Yuan said.
The majority of Sect Points were not exchanged for other favors, he found out, but rather for food and primeval stones. Considering the relative poverty of many of their members. This made sense.
Fang Yuan took out one of the blank paintings that Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable had given him.
"These paintings are a special way of collecting information that I have devised. If one places them near a crowded area, they will capture an image onto it. Those who manage to successfully capture an image and bring them back to me will be rewarded with five Sect Points."
There was a bit of a commotion at this. Ten Sect Points were equivalent to a single primeval stone, which for the mortal beggars was quite an amount. Many of them went up to take these blank canvases, though whether or not they would be able to fill them was another matter entirely.
For the Gu Masters a single primeval stone was not much, but Fang Yuan was more interested in quantity rather than quality here.
This new development devised by Fang Yuan had not gone unnoticed by the Shang Clan higher-ups. However, this was being done under the umbrella of Shang Xin Ci, who herself had proposed this idea as a potential spy network.
"A network of spies all around Shang Clan City," Shang Yan Fei said to himself, reading over the document that his daughter had prepared. "Rather redundant..."
There was one area in which this potential spy network could be superior to his own. While it was one thing to have spies within the city, the city was far too large for just their own reliable informants. Beggars were common enough that they could scatter through every single part of the city, and they often heard things which other people did not given their ability to simply blend into the shadows if not become outright invisible.
The downtrodden and poor were often seen as little more than parts of the scenery - most people did not want to so much as glance at them anyway.
This aspect of their lives could actually be molded to be advantageous.
As an example of its effectiveness, they had managed to find out the location of a certain basket of stolen goods four hours before the Shang Clan's own informants could get their hands upon them. However, this was only a single success story over the course of two months, and it was clear that the organization required a significant amount of resources to maintain because of the number of people involved.
As such, Shang Yan Fei expected for it to fail. However, he had a soft spot for Shang Xin Ci, and she was technically not breaking any rules here. Fang Yuan had not allowed the Beggar Sect to go into any restricted areas of the Shang Clan. And while vagrancy was looked down upon, the city had always had beggars and ne'er-do-wells in its corners. It could not really be said that she was doing something entirely different; if nothing else, by giving them a way to sustain themselves, it might be a way to bring down some of the poverty within the city.
"All right then. I will allow this to continue," he said to Wei Yang.
For now, the stance of the Shang Clan Elders regarding the Beggar Sect was that while they would not acknowledge its existence outright, they were also not going to condemn it or throw it out of the city. This was well within Fang Yuan's expectations.
The other Shang Clan Young Masters, however, were not so favorable towards this new development. Most of them thought it was a waste of time; all the better for them they supposed if Shang Xin Ci wasted her resources on this kind of expense.
Shang Ya Zi, on the other hand, was extremely petty and still bore a grudge towards Fang Yuan.
Anyone could be a sore loser - but it took a special kind of person to be a sore winner.
Shang Ya Zi wasn't content with winning, he had to win by even more!
Shang Ya Zi still wanted to make Fang Yuan suffer.
So what if Fang Yuan had already taken a massive loss? He had deduced that whatever this 'Beggar Sect' was, it was a scheme of some sort.
He didn't need to know the whole details of it in order to cause Fang Yuan trouble.
He just needed to send some goons of his to make lives difficult.
A group of people found a few of the beggars lounging around in the street, and immediately glared at them.
"Hey you! Who said you could sit there?"
"Don't you know this is our spot? Scram!"
The beggars grumbled but did not want to make a scene.
The moment they went somewhere else, they were tailed by the same men with the same excuse.
The beggars moved only to be accosted again. By this point they'd had enough.
"Oi, we're just some lowly beggars here, why are you trying to annoy us?"
"Annoying you!"
"Courting death!"
"Junior you dare!"
There was no need for further words as the beggars were then on the receiving end of several blows.
"Ah! Quick! Run!"
"This isn't the last you'll hear of us!"
"The Insane Reverend will have his due!"
Fang Yuan frowned as he listened to this report. There had been skirmishes in the past or small incidents but they had been smoothed over.
As it was, the beggars knew that they were trash and did not try to stand up for themselves most of the time. For most others, it was not worth it to try and find trouble with them.
Now though, some force had come out and was making life difficult for his sect. It did not just happen one day, or in a single district either.
If he were still the head of the Blood-Wing Demon Sect, he would've first slaughtered the beggars who had gotten beaten up for being weak and bringing shame to the sect before he put a hit out on those who had beaten the beggars up.
Now though, he had to act through other means.
Of course, it was a tough balance being that this was still in Shang Clan City. He did not want to attract too much attention to this sect, otherwise the Shang Clan would step in.
However, he had a good guess on who the mastermind behind these allegedly unconnected attacks was. And they would also not want to cause a scene.
After all, collateral damage was always a concern when two forces collided.