Mechanical Alchemist

The entertainment industry on Green Street was one of the most developed districts in the outer city.

Thanks to the backing of the mysterious Lady Philo, many wealthy people from the inner city flocked to this area for entertainment. Gambling activities such as the bloody gladiatorial arenas, which were not available in the inner city, generated an absurdly high amount of revenue just from the cut taken from those gambling tycoons.

Usually, such entertainment venues were overseen by the mob to handle issues more conveniently dealt with by local toughs.

For instance, thieves, scam artists, clients who refused to pay for prostitutes, rowdy drunkards, illegal human trafficking, hallucinogenic potions... and some other under-the-table dealings.

It wasn't that the mysterious big bosses behind the scenes were incapable of handling these matters, but outsourcing some of these issues for a fee would save a lot of trouble and even lead to mutual benefits without losing any dignity.

Originally, the situation was that the Cross Society had a strong fist and had secured the rights to oversee Green Street.

And because the backers of the Cross Society could bring high-quality customers to the entertainment industry of this street, everyone was quite satisfied.

But now that the third branch of the Reyes family had acquired the ownership of some of the big venues in the Green Street district, the situation had changed.

Young Master Martin intended to throw out the Cross Society and replace them with his closer allies, the Steam Party.

Many venues on Green Street, like the gladiator arena "Crimson Fortress" which Su Lun frequented, now had the Reyes family as major shareholders.

It seemed there should be no issue with one's own businesses changing hands to a different overseer.

But while it might have been legitimate, it did not follow the underworld code.

After all, the outer city was the turf of the three major gangs, inhabited by desperados who lived on the knife's edge and fought deadly battles over their earned territories. Why should they concede just because they were told to?

Negotiations, ideally, involved back-and-forth discussions.

The ultimate goal of gang violence was always profit.

Indeed, the Steam Party wanted to take over supervision, and it was negotiable if a substantial sum of money was offered and some benefits conceded.

That way, everyone could save face.

However, Young Master Martin now seemed to be demanding that the Cross Society bare their bottoms and "scram."

.....

"Smoky" Sam looked at the broken bottle on the table, a gleam of cold fury flashed in his eyes, but he restrained himself from showing his anger.

He stared at the young man in the suit upstairs and asked in a grave voice, "Young Master Martin, what do you mean by this?"

"What do I mean? Heh heh..."

Young Master Martin sneered dismissively, without even taking a proper look at this Cross Society executive, and said, "From now on, I call the shots on Green Street. Also, mind your tone; don't assume everyone is qualified to speak to me. I didn't come here to negotiate with you.

I'm just having Hog notify you that within three days, I don't want to see any members of the Cross Society in my venues."

After saying this, he finally fixed his gaze on Sam and asked, "Now, do you understand?"

With these words, not just Sam, but the entire Cross Society looked extremely displeased.

If it had been anyone else speaking so arrogantly, hostilities might have already escalated.

But facing this influential figure from the inner city, not a single person from the Cross Society dared to direct their guns at him, all choked up and red in the face.

Sam, with a stern face, spoke again, "Young Master Martin, it's not a big deal for the Cross Society to withdraw from your venues. But with the way you're doing this, Lady Philo might find it difficult to accept..."

Tit for tat, a general for a general.

Sam knew very well that he had no grounds to negotiate terms with this Young Master; his only course was to invoke the name of their financier.

Gang members were desperados struggling at the bottom rungs of society and merely 'enforcers,' disposable in the eyes of high society. Their lives were worthless.

Status?

Respect?

They were thinking too much. Just tools in the end.

Harsh as it might sound, this was the reality.

Upon hearing this remark, Young Master Martin coldly retorted, "If it weren't for Lady Phino's sake, I wouldn't even bother to come here personally. Besides, the matter at hand is one for my Reyes family to handle, and it has nothing to do with Lady Philo..."

His words effectively shut down any argument the Cross Society members could have made.

Not even giving face to the financier left no room for further discussion.

....

Outside the window of the tavern, Su Lun's brows furrowed.

The more prominent the family, the more they prized networking and connections, and the less they should offend others so "brazenly."

Young Master Martin seemed aggressive, displaying the arrogant mannerisms of a spoiled rich young master. Seeing him face a group of vicious gang members without changing his expression, Su Lun felt that this guy surely wasn't as superficial as he appeared.

It was one thing not to give face to the gang members, but not even giving face to Lady Philo? That was intriguing.

This approach of not showing any consideration felt like... the other party simply didn't care about causing offense.

"Things seem to have gotten complicated..."

Su Lun's thoughts raced.

He quickly realized that the incident on Green Street was just the surface of a deeper high-level power struggle.

The right to control a few streets wasn't enough to personally bring the Young Master here.

If there wasn't subsequent value, there was no need to save face...

Such events usually occurred when a building was about to collapse.

A thought flashed through Su Lun's mind, and from Young Master Martin's words, he rapidly deduced two possibilities: 1. Someone was planning to move against the Cross Society; 2. Someone was planning to move against the financial backer behind the Cross Society!

"Could it be that someone is preparing to move against Lady Philo, or perhaps the power behind her?"

The more Su Lun thought about it, the closer he felt he was to the truth.

He had known beforehand that the power behind Philo was, if not Lena's father, then closely related to them. After all, Lady Philo was Lena's aunt.

If anyone had the capability to force the Reiss family to split, wouldn't they strike while the iron was hot and also clip its wings?

Actually, when Lena was assassinated, Su Lun had suspected that there was more to it.

If simply assassinating someone could lead to advancement, then the decision-makers of the Reiss family must be foolish indeed.

Choosing assassination was probably to create internal strife.

Now, Lena hadn't died, the consortium was still forcefully split, and the upper echelon of the Dark Tower who had helped escalate the situation had surfaced. But what's done was done, and they had to swallow the criticism of their unsightly behavior.

Turning the Reiss family into seven parts was clearly because the adversary lacked the power to strike down this giant, so they created conflicts within it, won over some, divided some, and struck at some...

It was a very clever political tactic.

So, this was also why the third house didn't continue to support the Cross Society in the outer city but turned to the Steam Party instead. This was actually the real reflection of the inner city conflict transferred to the outer city.

Thinking this through, Su Lun also suddenly understood why Young Master Martin was so aggressive—it was because he knew someone was going to move against Lady Philo.

His thoughts vanished in a flash, and Su Lun muttered to himself, "If that's the case, this turf war is going to get a lot of people killed..."

....

Young Master Martin's few words slapped the faces of all the members of the Cross Society, and Kai next to him listened with clenched teeth, muttering under his breath, "This damned young master, I really want to blow his head off with a gun!"

Talk was cheap, but no one dared to actually move.

Even though the Reiss family had split, it was from one "oligarch" into seven "tycoons."

This third house was not to be underestimated and was definitely not a faction the outer city gangs could afford to provoke.

At that moment, Young Master Martin lost his patience to stay in the tavern any longer, and he tossed out two Gold Coins like it was charity, saying arrogantly, "This is for the drinks earlier."

Saying so, he didn't deign to give the Cross Society members another glance and said, "Remember, in three days, I don't want to see you here anymore."

Then, without looking back, he was escorted out of the Elephant Tavern by his bodyguards.

The Steam Party members, like foxes trailing behind the tiger's tail, wore smug smiles on their faces and followed the young master, strutting off.

The cadres Smoky and Red Demon both had dark expressions and remained silent.

The Cross Society's members were filled with rage, but no one dared to stop them.

....

After the enemies left, Kai and the other captains also swarmed into the tavern.

With just a command from their leaders, they were ready to grab their weapons and pursue.

"What do we do now, Boss Smoky? This damned Steam Party is going too far!"

"I say... let's just grab our weapons and go at it! I just saw those guys from the Steam Party looking so smug; I almost didn't hold back from shooting those dogs."

"Exactly! That so-called young master, I really want to twist his head off!"

"..."

The gang members weren't the type to fear stirring up trouble, especially the captains, who had clawed their way out of piles of corpses.

They weren't afraid of brawling, rolling up their sleeves and ready to fight at a moment's notice.

But the cadres obviously knew there was more at stake and considered the situation from a higher perspective.

Not having the right to enter, Su Lun just quietly listened from outside.

He felt that what he could think of, the cadres would surely also think of.

If they were to start a war now, the Cross Society would lose both morally and financially.

Even though they were a gang, did they dare to openly attack the young master of a major inner city family?

They would feel good killing him, but what about the consequences?

Did they think the security task force and garrison of the inner city weren't swift enough to eradicate a gang? Even if the people of the inner city couldn't thoroughly exterminate the long-entrenched snakes of the South City District, the Steam Party and the Crow Gang, these two large factions, would definitely be eager to help with the extermination.

Smoky suppressed the anger of the crowd and said, "I'm going back to headquarters to see what the boss says... Don't be impulsive, wait for news."