Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 379: Antithesis Society

Chapter 379: Antithesis Society

Wang Lun stared at Dasha for a long moment, his eyes searching for any sign of deceit. But Dasha’s mask remained unreadable. His soul remained unreadable. Finally, Wang Lun walked, sword scratching the ground.

"So it is," the Sect leader said. "I understand you now, messenger. The Inner Circle are pushing for this, for greater influence in the Underground. You recommended for the Pure Water Sect to be that influence. It is why you helped. How awfully complicated."

Dasha made a guess. A judgement based on the little he knew about this Antithesis Society and their Inner Circle. "You distanced yourself from us for that reason, did you not?"

"These politics bore me, as do you and your desires." Wang Lun stopped before he got too far. "Regardless, for the sake of my agreement with the Inner Circle, I will send my people to you. Take control of whatever you desire here. You work for the Liberator and you will have to report to the Morning Star as well. Be careful in how you inform him, messenger."

The Society. The ones that wished to topple the hierarchy of the gods.

The Morning Star.

Lucifer the Morning Star.

Throughout the history books, there were anomalies. Strange events that warranted too much circumstance and coincidence. Events that seemed predicated rather than spontaneous. The attack of the great Yamato-no-Orochi, the Great Fire of Heaven, the drastic changes in the time axis, and the very existence of the Underground. All were unexplained phenomena.

Something had to be behind it. People, an organization, group of godies and anti-gods, a society. That was the sole explanation for the unknowns in history of the White Abyss.

Dasha did not wish to ask the Whispers because, from his understanding, Jack the Ripper was already apart of this Society. If he asked, that would signal to the others that he did not know. Meaning, he was not in fact the Ripper. That was something he could not let happen. No, not when he was this deep.

Dasha had faked his way into the Whispers. He could most certainly do the same with this Society of history’s greatest rebels: Lucifer, Loki, Kon, Jack, Wang Lun, and the Liberator whom he supposedly worked for. Their might was impossible to fathom. However, their minds were not.

Their goal was predictable and simple: the complete dismantlement of the hierarchy of the gods. The end of the Heavenly Games.

That was the goal of this secret Society.

"As you wish."

"You will receive the Pure Water when your work is over," Wang Lun said. "Now go."

Dasha would follow his orders, for now.

***

The Underground did not function like its sky-filled counterpart. There were no tax collectors or patrolmen keeping the peace on behalf of the big guilds. Merchants and shops propped up one day and disappeared on the next day.

You lived or you died. You conquered or you lay in the streets. You gathered or you stayed alone.

The footsteps of the Pure Water Sect warriors prodded behind him, their movements so silent that if he hadn’t known they were there, he would have thought himself alone. Dasha knew they weren’t truly there to serve him. They were under Wang Lun’s orders, acting in the name of their leader and the mysterious Society they both served. Dasha merely happened to be the beneficiary of their deadly skill.

The side of the neighbourhood he faced was an interconnected large, grim structure made of iron and stone.

’Seven buildings that became one. Múchen mentioned they mass-produce smoke bombs here.’

There were seven entrances; seven ways of entry. No windows, no method of escape.

The Pure Water Sect warriors spread out silently. They did not speak, did not ask for instructions. They simply acted. For the ones in Dasha’s Qi Sense, he vaguely caught their movements. In total, across this neighbourhood of factories and the seven entrances, there were twenty-something guards.

There were seven members of the Pure Water Sect.

Wang Lun made sure to send the best he had.

The very first guard Dasha glanced at and involuntarily targeted had no time to react before a blade pierced his chest, the steel slicing through his armor as if it were paper. The second guard shouted a warning, but it was too late. The Pure Water Sect warriors moved with such speed and grace that the guards stood no chance. One by one, they fell, their bodies crumpling in pools of blood.

Dasha observed their technique closely. The footwork of the Pure Water Sect was particularly impressive—each step flowing for maximum efficiency in saving Qi. It wasn’t explosive. It merely connected to the next move for one cohesive pattern.

There was no hesitation, no wasted motion. Every strike was lethal.

In ten minutes, three entrances worth a factory of guards were conquered. Everything after this, Dasha could not see. They were too far from his Qi Sense. Judging by the corpses, he surmised one warrior caught one front guard across the throat. Another appeared with a quick, darting lunge, his sword plunging into the heart of the guard and the lung of the second. The Pure Water Sect fighters were artists of death, their swords their brushes.

They were not assassins. They did not specialize in stealth. They only moved like the purest of waters.

Dasha did not need to lift a finger. He merely watched, his arms folded behind his back as the bloodshed unfolded around him. These measly mercenaries were no match for the Pure Water Sect. The perimeter was secured. Dasha saw the bodies of the guards strewn across the ground like discarded dolls.

The Pure Water Sect did not clean-up. They were not assassins. They killed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Dasha did not take a single step inside. He waited at one of the seven entrances until his Qi Sense detected life. Brought forward to him in chains was a burly man with a thick beard and a hardened face. The Pure Water Sect had brought the main or co-owner. Like it mattered. The bearded owner’s eyes flicked nervously between Dasha and the Pure Water Sect warriors who now surrounded him.

The owner was nervous and afraid but already knew what to do.

For people of the Underground, this wasn’t unprecedented. They had heard of this kind of territorial seizing. Whether one experienced it was a matter of fortune.

Dasha remained silent for a moment, allowing the tension to build. The Pure Water Sect warriors stood like statues, their bloodied swords dripping and held at their sides.

"Thank you," Dasha finally said, turning to the Pure Water Sect member closest to him, "for bringing him to me."

"There were three managers," the Pure Sect member replied. "We brought one and killed the rest."

They had completed their task, but Dasha knew they weren’t here to protect him or orders—not explicitly. They followed Wang Lun’s orders to conquer, and in doing so, they maintained an aura of detached professionalism. They did what they were told but that did not prevent them from doing what they were told not to do.

"Excellent."

In all likelihood, the members killed the two of the owners because they thought it would slight him. It didn’t.

Dasha spoke again. "There has been a change in leadership."

The owner’s eyes darted around, looking for some means of escape, but he quickly realized there was none. His guards were dead, and he was alone. His only choice was to submit—or die. "You wish to take over? T-that is to say, you wish to have a big stake in our factory?"

Quick on the uptake. Excellent.

Two steps forward. Dasha’s presence loomed over the owner like a shadow. "You will continue your operations as before, but your product will serve my interests. You will be well compensated, of course, I will make sure to make up for whatever costs your old friends gave."

The owner swallowed hard. "And if I refuse?"

Dasha’s eyes, hidden behind his mask, bore into the man. "Then you will do it without your arms and legs."

The owner’s face paled and he swallowed thickly. "I... understand. We’ll discuss terms."

"Good," Dasha replied. He gestured toward a nearby door that led to the owner’s office. "Let’s talk in detail."