As Gong is beginning to head to the surface, I go up with her. “Do you mind if I come with you? I am still getting used to this part of the city and would like to learn more.”

She appears to think to herself, before nodding.

“That should be alright. I’m planning on heading back to Big Sister Crane’s place. She seemed to like you, so that could help with negotiations and information gathering. We’ll need to know what has changed since we’ve come back. Especially, since I’ve raised a bit of a stir with revealing that I now have full control of the spiders.”

That’s a good point.

From what she had told us earlier, there must be quite a few factions that are vying for control. Crane must have been doing information management, or at least have been giving that impression to Gong. Whether she is actually on her side, I can’t really tell.

All signs point to them being closely connected, though.

For now, I won’t worry too much about it, but will keep myself protected and ready.

Moving to the surface with Gong, we actually head out the main entrance this time. The sun appears to bright and heading towards the midday position. Behind us flows a large number of spiders.

I would estimate the group to be around half the total number of current spiders. I get the feeling they are individually large now than they were before. They separate into different streams, with some burrowing underground and others heading into other passageways.

Honestly, it’s a good move. It allows her to quickly bring them together, but now be as open about it.

One of the smaller, but still big spiders follows behind Gong.

Gong explains this to me as we move, but anytime she leaves from the main entrance, she always moves in a roundabout pattern. I can’t help but to ask, “Why not always just leave from a separate cavern entrance then? That way, you don’t need to change routes as much.”

She actually shakes her head at this. “That’s the wrong way to think about it, James. If I use the side caverns too much, it raises the risk that someone could use that to gain entrance in a way that I can’t track as easily. I always keep myself prepared to collapse a tunnel, if I get the slightest inkling that it was compromised.”

She looks out in the distance and nods her head in a direction, clearly referencing one that she must have collapsed in the past. “The people that find the caverns and are looking to do something with them, they don’t just head in immediately. There are always signs that they are watching and gathering information for the best single moment.

“I mentioned to you before that some fool tried to get into my home? He actually managed to find a direct side cavern. However, my spiders got to him before he could get close enough to report anything of substance. A couple of weeks later, I found out others began scoping out that same cavern. He had spread the information with his group before exploring it.” She gives an enormous sigh.

“I had to collapse it and any nearby tunnels, since there was no way I could allow such a thing to be available. I found out they tried to dig out the tunnels, but because I was thorough, they weren’t able to find anything else underground. Unfortunately for them, fortunately for me, the other underground creatures found anyone who dug deeper.”

She finally gives a direct look, “You’ve seen what kind of place it is. Secure, with resources and most importantly, enormous amounts of water. If the spiders and underground pests weren’t all over these caverns, I suspect they would have tried a tougher method a long time ago. There’s always a chance, that similar to me, they could pacify any underground creatures. So, I have to be vigilant.”

After this statement, we stay silent. Continuing to navigate through the jungle of alleyways. All the way until we reach the first market street. Here, I chat with Gong to get more information regarding the color schemes of the stalls.

As suspected, the stalls are aligned with the various gangs here. Red for the Vermillion Stripes, blue for the Blue Bands. They are in open competition, but primarily a cold war. They don’t have an open war due to the presence of a third, far more powerful group, the Yellow Sashes.

As described by Gong, the Vermillion Stripes are a human male-oriented gang, operating mainly off ‘security’ services. They have a large number of gang members and some extremely poor-quality Qi Condensation brawlers. They also have even more non-cultivation members, that are the first and open line of defense.

However, the gap between someone with cultivation and one without, is vast. She gives the comparison of a normal fighting man and the worst quality cultivator, i.e. a good reference for the Vermillion Gang members. One cultivator of that quality, could easily fight off 5 normal men. A regular cultivator could handle double that many or more.

Gong herself, could handle about 5 of the Vermillion gang cultivators at one time, with difficulty. And only if she was ready. The issue is, that they have over a 100 of those cultivators. So, she always needed to step carefully.

Then why is she essentially talking shit in the open right now? She’s previously been more cautious about what she says.

She pretty much answers my thoughts, with her next words.

“Since I have the spiders now, though… I don’t need to worry about them as much. I’m pretty sure I could take quite a few of them, easily.”

Oh, that statement turned a few heads. I’m sure she did that on purpose.

At this moment, gasps come out from the surrounding people, as a carriage-sized, fast moving, stream of spiders flows up to Gong and then disseminates back into individual spider streams. A brief show of force, to show that there are teeth behind that statement.

I personally feel that could be too provoking, but I’m sure that she knows what she’s doing.

…Hopefully.

After this display, she continues on, softer.

From what she tells me, apparently the Blue Bands are a secretive group, but focuses on information trading and “robin hood”- like actions. They are excellent at leveraging information to get an advantage and play groups off of each other.

Lastly, the Yellow Sashes are a protection group for prostitutes. Unsurprisingly, if your ‘services’ are enjoyed by wealthy, powerful people, they like to give you nice things. This was used by the founder and her group to increase their power enough to protect each other. All up to the point where they were now dictating most of the rules.

No one messes with the prostitutes.

Gong also scolds me for causing an issue with one of the prostitutes, the other day. However, from what she’s learned (though I don’t know when she got the chance), it turned out to be a non-issue. She suggests not diving deeper into it, though.

By the time she has finished giving me the rundown on the gangs and current situation, we have reached Big Sister Crane’s place. Gong, noticing something, asks me to wait by the front of the building. She quickly heads over to see her. A brief scan reveals nothing abnormal, but I keep it active nonetheless. I can see some of the hidden guys in their regular spots, but it looks like they are just relaxing.

From what I can see, Big Sister Crane and Gong are having a good conversation and apparently a great time, but I don’t use my scan to find out more. The aura they and everyone there gives off is that this is a regular thing.

I guess, I’ll just wait until they’re done.