Just like they had done so before, several hoodlums associated with Shang Ya Zi came to find trouble with a batch of beggars.
"Heh heh, told you this was easy money."
"Honestly, some of them are so dirty I thought I'd get sick if I touched them."
"That's why you deal with them the same way that you do with wild dogs! Carry a stick and beat 'em!"
Their laughter was interrupted as what sounded like thousands of paws approached them.
"That?"
"What's that?"
Before they could do anything, they were nearly swamped by a gang of wild street dogs.
From behind the dogs, came about forty members of the Beggar Sect, all carrying sticks.
"Look, stray dogs are causing havoc on the streets!"
"We need to stop them!"
"Let us perform our civic duty and protect the citizenry just like our righteous and chivalric leader, the Insane Reverend, would expect of us!"
"Beggars! Assemble!"
"Dog Beating Formation!"
"Attack!"
They started swinging their weapons haphazardly.
"Ooof! You fools, what are you doing? You're hitting us more than the dogs!"
"Sorry, it's hard to tell with so much chaos-"
"Ah! You scoundrels are only hitting us! You're not even pretending to hit the dogs now!"
"And the dogs left now, stop beating us!"
"Oh, are the dogs gone?"
"Heh heh, sorry, we may have gotten a bit too carried away..."
The two groups left before they could get into any major trouble with the city guard, but that was the end of Shang Ya Zi's meddling. Neither he nor Fang Yuan wanted to draw the negative attention of the Shang Clan higher-ups.
As it was, Shang Ya Zi had found out that it was impossible to deal with the Beggar Sect. It was like trying to stamp out a large number of cockroaches from one's home using only a fly swatter; even if one managed to get a few, there would always be several which were left over to crawl right back in the next day.
Fang Yuan, however, knew that this was not the end of his troubles. He had not been serious about developing the Beggar Sect into anything substantial, but he would need some competent subordinates to make sure things were functioning.
Already, the issue of having to manage several thousands of people was causing him quite a headache. Fang Zheng and Qing Shu had to be kept around Bei Gu Village. Shang Xin Ci was new to this and couldn't spend all her time on the sect as it was his own idea. Bai Ning Bing was out of the question entirely.
With a flash though, he managed to recall something from his earlier life that could aide him here.
In a street corner, there was a stall ran by a Rank 1 Gu Master. He was little more than a glorified beggar, though not a member of the Beggar Sect.
One day, he had the misfortune to be annoyed by a pack of stray dogs.
"Ah! I don't have food!" he yelled out. Being only Rank 1 Middle Stage, his fighting capabilities were on the lower end.
Right then, four members from the Beggar Sect came to his aide.
"Ah, thank you all," he said as the dogs were chased away.
"No worries, no worries, however," one of the beggars asked with a toothless grin, extending his hand. "If you'd be so kind..."
"Ah, payment, hmm?" the man said, his earlier gratitude wearing away. With all eyes on him, it would seem extraordinarily rude to reject these four outright. "How about something from this cart?"
It was filled with, as far as he knew, trash, so he let them take away a few trinkets and leave, cursing his luck.
One of the beggars was holding the half of a token, which was delivered to Fang Yuan.
"Very good. Twenty sect points to each of you. Now, get on with business."
The beggars wondered what it was with the token that Fang Yuan coveted it so much, but a glance from him told them that was all that they needed to know and all that they were going to know.
With this half of a token, Fang Yuan found three Rank 3 Gu Masters quickly enough.
The Xiong brothers - Xiong Tu, Xiong Huo, and Xiong Feng. They had squared off against Bai Ning Bing but been quickly defeated with her shattering their hopes of rising up the ranks of the Battle Arena to become Shang Clan External Elders.
They were demonic Gu Masters after all, and wished to secure a spot for themselves in this world. It was not easy to survive as a demonic Gu Master, after all.
"Is that Fang Yuan?"
"Is he coming towards us?"
"Don't be stupid why would- ah! You're right?"
"Did we do something to annoy him?"
Fang Yuan's strength was well known through Shan Clan City. By this point, there was no one who would oppose him head-on.
"Ah- Lord Fang Yuan, is there something-"
They got no further as Fang Yuan handed them the half of the token in question.
A long time ago, a demonic Gu Master was injured but was rescued by a mortal woman. As thanks, he gave her half of a certain token, stating that he would repay her later on. He was eventually captured and was currently being held in the Demon Suppression Tower by the Tie Clan, but his descendants lived on.
In his previous life, the stall owner that he had taken this from had managed to use it to gain these three as his subordinates for twenty years, before they left and then he passed away penniless.
"Is this?"
"Wait, does it match up with our half of the token?"
"Our grandfather said that whoever shows us the other half, even if they are mortal enemies, we should serve them as our savior!"
The three Xiong brothers bowed to Fang Yuan.
"At ease," Fang Yuan said. "I want the three of you to join a sect I've made under the service of Shang Xin Ci."
"You will have our loyalty for how long it takes to repay this debt."
"Twenty years, Lord Fang Yuan."
Fang Yuan nodded. "Good enough."
With that, Fang Yuan had three trustworthy generals to run the Beggar Sect. Fang Yuan was called the Insane Reverend, so the Xiong brothers adopted the title of Reverend for themselves.
The majority of the Beggar Sect's members were mortals, with very few Rank 1 Gu Masters. There was only one Rank 2 Gu Master who had joined up with him. Now though, he had the additional strength of three Rank 3 Gu Masters to leverage against any problems that arose.
Additionally, he could take a portion of their earnings from the Battle Arena, supplementing his own funds. If they managed to find a way to reliably refine Rank 3 Stupidity Gu, it could be a potential goldmine but Fang Yuan doubted that he would find that.
Why?
Because the Xiong brothers were simply not that stupid.
As one went up the ranks, the chances of finding a true imbecile were rather low.
***
Fang Yuan admired the paintings that his sect members had been bringing him.
The problem with filling in the paintings was that he was only one person, and they had to be near important events in order for them to capture something. Fang Yuan could not go stand by each street corner himself in order to fill them up. This was not a small area like Gu Yue Village or Bei Gu Mountain where such a thing might be plausible.
With all of his agents scattered throughout the city, though, he was seeing immense success.
He had filled over two hundred more of them.
Some of them were depicting the Red Light District.
There was a painting showing a mother leading a child by the hand in a crowd.
There was a painting showing a gardener watering some plants.
There was a painting of a mortal man pulling a rickshaw with a passenger in the back.
There was a painting of two merchants talking to each other.
There was a painting of a young lady gazing at the sun.
All of these were scenes that Fang Yuan might have missed if he had relied upon filling in the paintings himself. He had gotten to the point where he could no longer keep them all within his room and had to place them within a gu worm.
Shang Ya Zi had tried to find trouble with them as well, but it was hard for him to find a reason to tear down blank paintings.
'Just a little more,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. He had doubled the reward for getting filled-up paintings, and now more people were signing up for them. With three new generals, he could also increase their numbers.