Chapter 1326: Derimont Bazaar
The more Rui heard about the Beggar's Sect, the more interested he grew. It appeared that not only could they get the job done, but there was a good overlap of interests between Rui's goal and the interests of the common folk. Furthermore, as a Martial Senior, he was sure that he could provide them with valuable services that they would have difficulty accomplishing independently as an intelligence organization of baseline humans.
"You are correct in your estimation that they extract Martial Art services from Martial Art clientele." The deputy director stated. "You will most likely have to complete a task of some sort I imagine. It's not going to be a short or easy one either."
Rui nodded. "That's fine by me. Please provide me with all the relevant information on them."
"I will be sure to do that immediately." The deputy director confirmed.
"I appreciate the aid," Rui turned towards Senior Sarak.
"It wasn't much." He smiled. "I bid you good luck on all your endeavors."
Soon enough, the meeting broke up as Rui returned to his newly assigned quarter. He had spent more time thinking about his journey after he left the Floating Sect. The time for action had finally arrived, and it was no longer enough to aimlessly wander around simply looking to become stronger.
Over the next few days, Rui made his final preparations to leave.
He even went as far as to procure the Master-level mask that he got from Master Deivon that he had tossed away when Master Uma had been chasing him. Thankfully, he knew exactly where he buried it and after taking some precautions, he was able to extract it and leave.
He constantly looked over his shoulder, afraid that Master Uma would pop out of nowhere. However, such a thing had never happened.
The mask was too valuable, after getting its look and appearance refitted by the Floating Sect, it would be just as useful as before in concealing his appearance. And it was something that he couldn't afford to let go of.
He was also confident that it would be useful when dealing with the Beggar's Sect. He did not want them to glean his appearance, and he highly doubted they could. Their biggest advantage was their numbers and the fact that they were almost everywhere in the Human Domain, but accomplishing feats that required extraordinary means was probably their greatest deficiency.
It wasn't long before Rui received a list of locations and the information on them that he began planning his first step.
He was surprised at the sheer number of locations that they could be reached through. An ordinary intelligence department or division that was part of a much bigger nation or corporation would not need to do such things since one needed to approach the parent organization in order to make use of their intelligence capabilities.
He skimmed through the list of locations that he had been provided glancing at their coordinates before instantly running some calculations in his mind.
"This one is the closest to the Shionel Confederation," Rui murmured.
He couldn't pick one that was too distant otherwise the price of information would rise, or they would straightforwardly refer him to closer branches.
"The Derimont Bazaar, eh?"
According to the intelligence, it was an enormous town in the Saiful region that was close to the Beast Domain at the heart of the continent. It was said to be a lawless zone that was outside the territory of the nations surrounding it, a no man's land where an open market that sold just about everything existed.
That was the Derimont Bazaar.
Apparently, although the Saiful Region contained Senior-level nations that together possessed the military power needed to overrun and erase the Derimont Bazaar, it was said that none of the nations dared to do anything to the market.
The reason they abstained was rather simple.
Fear.
The reason they were too afraid of doing anything to the Derimont Bazaar was because the bazaar belonged to the Beggar's Sect. It was said that the Beggar's Sect created the bazaar nearly a century ago, and not a single force dared to stand in their way.
This was what happened when billions of people across the continent came under one cohesive organization with disciplined order and the will to sacrifice their lives to accomplish their goals and secure their agendas.
You ended up with a powerful continent-wide force that nobody wished to make an enemy out of.
Rui couldn't help but admire the Beggar's Sect. Despite not relying on the power of Martial Art or esoteric technology much, if at all, they ended up becoming a force so powerful that their deterrence matched with other powerful forces like the Virodhabhasa Faith.
All while almost entirely relying on the power of the common man and woman.
It was an admirable feat worthy of his respect. There were probably very few intelligence organizations that commanded the kind of fear and respect that the Beggar's Sect. Rui would much rather face a Martial Art organization of a small number of powerful Martial Artists than billions and billions of hidden spies that he was unable to identify.
The latter was much scarier to him.
He actually looked forward to going to the Derimont Bazaar, the issue was that it would probably take quite some time. Although he was definitely an order of magnitude faster than he was as a Martial Squire, that was with the Martial Heart.
Senior Sarak had already warned him about using the Martial Heart frivolously. If he did something as stupid as use it for mundane travel, then he would end up vulnerable to other Martial Seniors if and when he was to face them in combat. That was an unacceptable trade-off.
"The sooner I get started, the sooner I reach." He murmured.
He quickly began gathering the resources he would need while finalizing arrangements with his friends and acquaintances. He would not be returning for a long time, if ever, so it was best to get all of the things that could only be done here, out of the way.