Volume Two: Bandit Life, Chapter Nine: The Purple Mystic Alliance

"Report to the Alliance Master, Deputy Alliance Master!" Jian Hui said as he held a golden scroll and bowed to Qin Si and Qin Shuang. In the main hall of Thousand Insects Valley, the seats that had originally belonged to Shangguan Hong and Jian Hui were now occupied without the slightest courtesy by Qin Si, with Qin Shuang beside him. Standing nearby was Zhong Xing, still utterly bewildered; he had not long been cultivating in the Jiang Lan Realm before Qin Si summoned him here.

"Speak."

Qin Si nodded faintly, playing the part of a bandit chief to perfection.

"Yes. As for the Violet Mystic Alliance's Thousand Insects Pavilion, including myself and Pavilion Master Shangguan, there are currently two upper-level celestial gods, four middle-level celestial gods, and seventeen lower-level celestial gods. In addition, there are over a thousand ordinary deities of various ranks!"

"As for resources, Thousand Insects Pavilion currently possesses one mid-grade heavenly divine artifact, four low-grade heavenly divine artifacts, more than a hundred high-grade divine artifacts, and over three hundred mid-grade and low-grade divine artifacts in total!" Shangguan Hong also bowed and stepped forward before Qin Si and Qin Shuang.

"Moreover, the wealth accumulated by Thousand Insects Pavilion in the past can still be used to forge more than a hundred divine artifacts. There are also twenty-one top-grade divine spirit stones and more than five hundred high-grade divine spirit stones!"

Jian Hui and Shangguan Hong each reported all the people and assets within Thousand Insects Valley. Zhong Xing, standing to the side, grew even more astonished. He had never imagined that the two alliance masters had truly taken down Thousand Insects Valley. Watching Shangguan Hong and Jian Hui behave with such deference, he even felt as though he were dreaming.

"Is that all you have? And you dare call yourselves bandits?" Qin Si looked down at Jian Hui and Shangguan Hong with disdain. The wealth they reported fell far short of what he had imagined. Such a meager haul was not even as much as the fortune of a middle-level celestial god under the power he had once seen on that demon island.

"Alliance Master!"

Shangguan Hong and Jian Hui both flushed slightly. Their once-proud wealth had not been taken seriously at all by Qin Si. Yet under Qin Si's instruction, they no longer had to address him as master; they had all been ordered to call him Alliance Master instead, which spared them considerable embarrassment.

"Go and summon everyone above the rank of lower-level celestial god!"

Qin Shuang rose with a faint smile and issued the order to Shangguan Hong. Qin Shuang was far more meticulous than Qin Si; since his elder brother wanted to play at being a bandit chief, the loyalty of his subordinates was indispensable.

"Yes, Deputy Alliance Master!" Shangguan Hong glanced at Qin Si, and only after receiving a glare did he turn and go out to summon his men.

A short while later, Shangguan Hong returned with more than a dozen people. The four middle-level celestial gods had already followed Qin Si and the others inside earlier; this time, Shangguan Hong had gone out to bring in all the lower-level celestial gods.

The seventeen lower-level celestial gods had actually been waiting outside for some time. From the moment the two valley masters surrendered, they knew that Thousand Insects Valley would be changing hands.

In the Divine Realm of Primordial Chaos, it was quite common for bandit forces to change masters. Their own two valley masters had once seized Thousand Insects Valley from another power in just this way. Therefore, the lower-level and middle-level celestial gods did not resist the renaming of Thousand Insects Valley to the Violet Mystic Alliance.

"I do not care what your identities were before. From this day onward, you are all members of my Violet Mystic Alliance. Of course, if any of you are unwilling, you may leave right now!"

Qin Shuang stood up, swept his gaze across the crowd, and spoke slowly. As he spoke, he also applied a touch of pressure to his voice.

The seventeen lower-level celestial gods and four middle-level celestial gods looked at one another, then all knelt on one knee. Not a single one chose to leave. They had long since grown accustomed to the life of bandits. If they were to depart from here, in the Divine Realm of Primordial Chaos where experts were as numerous as the clouds, they did not even know where they could go.

"Very well. Since you have chosen to stay, from this day on you will officially become members of the Violet Mystic Alliance!"

Qin Shuang walked slowly down from the platform and nodded. Suddenly, twenty-one weapons flew out from his hand, one hovering before each person.

"Mid-grade heavenly divine artifact!"

The four middle-level celestial gods immediately went red-eyed. Before each of them floated a mid-grade heavenly divine artifact, while before the seventeen lower-level celestial gods floated seventeen low-grade heavenly divine artifacts.

Not only did the four middle-level celestial gods' eyes turn red, but even the two former valley masters, now the Pavilion Master and Deputy Pavilion Master of Thousand Insects Pavilion, were filled with envy. They had spent tens of thousands of years accumulating their wealth, only to obtain one mid-grade heavenly divine artifact and four low-grade heavenly divine artifacts. Yet with a mere wave of his hand, the deputy alliance master had produced several times their total assets.

"You two need not rush. As my pavilion masters, you will naturally receive something good as well."

Qin Si smiled and transmitted his words to Shangguan Hong and Jian Hui. Of everyone in this hall, these two were the ones he trusted most. Qin Shuang's gift of those ordinary heavenly divine artifacts to the others was merely a means of winning hearts; after all, Qin Si could hardly send every celestial god into the God Binding Pagoda.

Shangguan Hong and Jian Hui were stunned at once, and their eyes lit up with excitement, overwhelming excitement. The Alliance Master had said there would be good things for them. Did that not mean they would receive something even better than what the people below had gotten? And among treasures better than a mid-grade heavenly divine artifact, only a high-grade heavenly divine artifact remained.

To receive a high-grade heavenly divine artifact made Jian Hui feel as if his heart were pounding wildly. Aside from the celestial gods of the Eight Great Clans, who could ever obtain a high-grade heavenly divine artifact?

"Since you have chosen to stay, these are gifts for you. What we want, I believe you understand well enough."

Once more, Qin Shuang's seductive voice sounded through the hall. The seventeen lower-level celestial gods and the four middle-level celestial gods no longer hesitated. They accepted the heavenly divine artifacts, dripped blood upon them to recognize them as their masters, and then cried out in unison:

"We swear to serve the Violet Mystic Alliance with our lives, and to follow the two alliance masters unto death!"

"Good. Since those are your own words, I now announce the first rule of the Violet Mystic Alliance: loyalty. If anyone is found harboring treacherous thoughts and betraying the Violet Mystic Alliance, I will make sure he tastes every torment under heaven and never even be allowed the mercy of death!"

Purple light flashed in Qin Si's eyes, and an immense pressure bore down upon the twenty-one of them until they could hardly breathe. In all their hearts, a single thought arose: if they truly betrayed the Violet Mystic Alliance, they would surely regret ever being born into this world.

Qin Si quietly gave Qin Shuang a thumbs-up. With this method of alternating carrot and stick, Qin Shuang had already made these people utterly into members of the Violet Mystic Alliance.

"Very well. I now announce that Zhong Xing shall serve as the general manager of the Violet Mystic Alliance, overseeing all internal affairs. And if you perform well in the future and make contributions, there will be even more rewards for you!"

This was the perfect moment for Qin Si to step forward. Of course he would not miss it. After Qin Si finished speaking, the twenty-one celestial gods below once again shouted their loyalty to the Alliance Master and to the Violet Mystic Alliance.

A month later, Qin Si and Qin Shuang had completely secured control of the Violet Mystic Alliance. The original thousand-odd deities were all sent by Qin Si into the third level of the Jiang Lan Realm for cultivation. Their strength was too weak; they could only shout and could not fight. It would be better to train them and see whether more celestial gods might emerge from among them.

Shangguan Hong and Jian Hui no longer felt the slightest resentment at being slaves. After Qin Shuang had won over the twenty-one celestial gods with his carrot-and-stick strategy that day, Qin Si bestowed upon each of them a high-grade heavenly divine artifact. Holding those divine artifacts, the two of them remained so excited for a full month that they still had not recovered.

Zhong Xing also received a newly bestowed mid-grade heavenly divine artifact from Qin Shuang. At present, he too was in the third level of the Jiang Lan Realm, guiding the more than a thousand original deities in their cultivation, striving to train even more celestial gods in a short period of time.

Gradually, the surrounding bandit forces also learned that Thousand Insects Valley had vanished and that a Violet Mystic Alliance had appeared in its place, with the alliance master and deputy alliance master both being upper-level celestial gods.

Aside from Demon Refining Cave, the other five smaller powers all felt a sense of crisis. The two former valley masters of Thousand Insects Valley had not died, but had instead become members of the Violet Mystic Alliance. In that case, the Violet Mystic Alliance now possessed four upper-level celestial gods, and among the six powers, it had become the strongest.

Three months later, Dragon Earth Mountain, which possessed two upper-level celestial gods, six middle-level celestial gods, and fifteen lower-level celestial gods, also announced that it would join the Violet Mystic Alliance and became the Dragon Earth Pavilion of the alliance. However, one of its original two upper-level celestial gods was killed by Qin Si, leaving only one. That upper-level celestial god was then appointed as the Pavilion Master of Dragon Earth Pavilion after Qin Si emerged from the God Binding Pagoda.

In an instant, the remaining four forces all became wary and guarded themselves with renewed vigilance. The four powers also united in response to the rising Violet Mystic Alliance. Even Demon Refining Cave spoke up, forbidding the Violet Mystic Alliance from attacking any other bandit forces. Moreover, the annual tribute owed by the Violet Mystic Alliance would henceforth be the combined amount formerly paid by Thousand Insects Valley and Dragon Earth Mountain.

To this, the Violet Mystic Alliance declared that it would fully obey the constraints of Demon Refining Cave. Qin Si even personally and courteously escorted the envoy from Demon Refining Cave out, stating that the alliance would henceforth coexist peacefully with the other powers. This at last eased the minds of the remaining four forces somewhat.

Although the Violet Mystic Alliance's alliance master, Qin Si, had made his declaration, the four great powers still watched its movements carefully. In the world of bandits, there was no such thing as an eternal covenant.

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, another three years went by. To everyone's astonishment, within those three years the people of the Violet Mystic Alliance seemed to have vanished into thin air, all of them disappearing without a trace. Since the founding of the Violet Mystic Alliance, there had never once been any sign of a hunting expedition, nor had they continued to accept the tribute of the original villages. They no longer seemed like a bandit organization at all.

To be continued.