Rise of The Demon General-Chapter 430. The Sit-down

"Amon...?" The others turned to the one addressed by Gao Fongze.

"Hey, isn’t Amon that ex-academy student fast-tracked by the thirteenth prince to be a Colonel?" Erl Kui asked.

"Are you saying he is that person?" Kung Liu asked.

"I didn’t. He said it," Erl Kui pointed at Gao Fongze.

Since his identity had been revealed, Amon didn’t see the point in hiding it. He removed his mask and sat at one of the remaining three empty chairs.

No one could take his eyes off him. His black eyes, imposing stature, and confident manner gave off an aura of intimidation.

"Is he that newly appointed colonel?" Kung Liu asked again.

"I don’t know. I only heard his name. I never saw his face," Erl Kui replied.

"A kingdom colonel is the secret leader of an underworld organization?" Mai Ziling laughed. "What will the public say if this news is out in the open?"

"They won’t say shit, because this secret stays here. Anyone who speaks of my identity should hurry and make a funeral arrangement because they won’t live long."

"Is that a threat?" Zin Bao asked.

"Yes," Amon replied without hesitation.

"Fuck you!" Wirn Chin slammed the table and stood. "You think we are afraid of you, upstart? Bring it on! I’m already bashing people’s skulls in this underworld when you are still sucking your mom’s titties!"

"Young man, do not be too arrogant," Fei Calao told Amon. "I know youngsters like you feel like you are invincible. Your early success in seizing a part of this capital’s underworld no doubt ballooned your pride, but do not let that get into your head. Reports say you are using concealment art and that you are a Beginning Mystic Stage. If that is true, you have the lowest cultivation level among those here. We could easily kill you."

"Now, now. Everyone, calm down, please," Gao Fongze said. "Again, I didn’t invite you people here to fight. No one will be killing anyone. At least not in this room, okay?"

"So, what are you calling us here for?" Mai Ziling asked.

"Excellent question!" Gao Fongze exclaimed. "Now, everyone. Please focus your attention here instead of Mister Amon there."

Everyone turned to him except for Wirn Chin. This was because Amon remained staring at her. She felt like it was a challenge. If she looked away, she would be the loser.

"Ehem!" Only after Gao Fongze coughed that she involuntarily looked away.

"Now, let me begin," Gao Fongze said after Wirn Chin sat back down. "Everyone here knows we hate each other. It is not a secret. If we had given in to our desire, we would have torn each other apart in this room. Wouldn’t you say so, brother Bifu?"

"I don’t disagree," Xian Bifu replied. "God knows how many times I have thought about offing you."

"Hehe, same here, brother," Gao Fongze chuckled. "But we didn’t do that. You know why was that? Because it is bad for business. If we start killing our enemies recklessly, a war is bound to happen. War is never good for everyone involved. It might even implicate our clans when the kingdom inserts itself into the underworld conflicts. Nobody here wants that, am I right?"

"You certainly did not call us here just to listen to that, did you?" Wirn Chin asked.

"Hehe, of course not. I am here to propose a cooperation," Gao Fongze said.

"Cooperation? Ridiculous," Zin Bao uttered. "It is already an effort that we don’t tear each other apart like you said, much less cooperate."

"I expected that reaction, but hear me out first, will you?" Gao Fongze said. "I bring this up because an opportunity has presented itself. We are currently in an unusual period of this capital. If we don’t make full use of it, we will regret it."

"How so?" Fei Calao asked.

"Don’t you feel the lax in the capital’s security these past few days? Don’t you feel like you see fewer kingdom soldiers patrolling the street and officials auditing our territories?"

The clans’ representatives looked at each other without answering.

"The capital had suffered several setbacks lately," Gao Fongze resumed. "First, there was the jailbreak. Everything in the capital turned chaotic after that."

"Yeah, that truly caused a shitshow," Kung Liu said. "I had soldiers come into my gambling dens repeatedly to look for the escapees. I ended up having to shut them down for weeks."

"You are not the only one," Mai Ziling added. "No one would come to my brothels. They are afraid the soldiers might come and do an inspection while they are with my girls. I lost a lot of profits due to that."

"That is right, but everything turned the other way after those intense weeks. Do you know why?" Gao Fongze asked.

"Are you referring to the rumor about the thievery in the city hall?" Xian Bifu asked.

"It is not a rumor. It is real," Gao Fongze replied. "Someone stole the city hall’s aer stone reserves."

"Really? Who did that?" Erl Kui asked.

"The rebels. Who else dares to pull a stunt like that?" Zin Bao said.

"It doesn’t matter who is responsible," Gao Fongze uttered. "The point is that the city hall now has a problem paying their employees. They had to ask for a relief fund from the kingdom treasury, but that fund was limited. Hence, the inadequate activities from the authorities these days. To make matters worse, the rebels had shown an increase of activity in the capital’s vicinity."

"They probably become bolder because they heard about the jailbreak and the city hall theft," Fei Calao remarked.

"Don’t forget the thirteenth prince’s proclamation to eradicate them," Xian Bifu added. "These might be their declaration to challenge Prince Huang San’s newly formed force to come at them."

Kung Liu turned to Amon and said, "So, this is partly your fault, or more correctly, your liege’s fault."

Actually, they were all his fault, but Amon remained silent.

"The thing is, this is a golden opportunity for us," Gao Fongze stated. "We are always restricted in our movement because the authorities maintained a tight lease on us. The lease is now loosened. Are we going to just let this chance pass us by?"

"... What do you propose?" Xian Bifu asked.

"Like I said, a cooperation. Or, more aptly put, a coalition between the nine of us," Gao Fongze answered.

"Coalition?" Erl Kui asked with raised eyebrows.

Gao Fongze nodded. "This is a chance for us to expand our territories. It has always been a pain in the ass to do that. With the capital in this state, we can seize the opportunity and beat those other organizations."

The clan representatives again looked at one another. Wirn Chin said, "Now that you made us aware of the situation, we will, but why do we have to cooperate. It is better if we expand on our own. The strongest will get the most before the capital reorganizes themselves."

"If that is the way, I assure you the Gao Clan and the Xian Clan will reap the most profit. Yet, I still extend an invitation to you all. Why do you think I do that?" Gao Fongze asked.

"Enlighten us, please, Brother Fongze," Xian Bifu said. A slight sarcasm was in his tone.

"Hehe. You are always the best, Brother Bifu," Gao Fongze said. "If we expand on our own, some of us will do better than others, but can we keep those territories? I reckon for every territory we gain, we will lose half. We won’t win much that way, but if we become one. Now, that is a different matter. We can expand without worrying about getting hit in the back. We can watch each other’s back."

Gao Fongze stood and placed a large map on the table. The map depicted a detailed layout of the Golden Stone City. Several areas were marked with red lines. He proceeded to put a cross on three of these marked areas.

"These are the three assholes who refused my invitation," Gao Fongze uttered. He then pointed at the rest of the marked areas. "These were ours. We can work ourselves to link our areas with each other. Once we do that, we will be one cohesive whole. We will have more freedom to solidify our territories and expand outward."

"This is all a wonderful dream," Mai Ziling stated. "One problem, though. We are not one cohesive whole. How do we decide on who gets which area? Does it depend on our own strength? We get more if we conquer more?"

"No, if we do this, we do this together," Gao Fongze said. "Here is my proposal. Everyone keeps their original districts. We will work together to expand one district at a time, working our way to link our territories together. With our power pooled, no single underworld organization will be able to resist us. Management of the conquered districts will be handed to one of us with the original area closest to it. Each of us will have the freedom to conduct business in these conquered districts. Every profit gained from these districts will be divided equally among everyone in the coalition."