A Cult Of Lust
Indoramus was indeed a rising name amongst merchant circles. His methods for accumulating wealth were a bit risky for the most part, but he demonstrated impressive talent and business acumen consistently, and he wasn’t reckless either. If one of his businesses were to get into a tough spot, he had made sure to keep funds in stock so that he could deal with the problem without delay.
He had even mentioned some rather bold plans to Xiaolie in hopes that she would bring back word to her master, and that he would be sufficiently interested to reach out... It was safe to say that Indoramus had succeeded. Anoteros was indeed quite impressed, and he was quite pleased that he would be the first to have the occasion to kickstart a longstanding business relationship with this merchant.
Edrick felt confident that regardless of whether he was in the picture, Indoramus would see success. Some of his ideas were definitely out there, but if Edrick got involved, they could definitely be accomplished nonetheless.
There was just one problem: His potential.
If they established a mere business deal, then once Indoramus rose to further heights, Edrick’s influence might not be able to keep up. Especially since it wasn’t unlikely that the merchant’s businesses would truly boom overnight. If that happened, the correct business approach would be to seek out nobles with more influence than Edrick.
Although Anoteros had a bit of a reputation, he didn’t actually have that much to offer in terms of proper business connections. Plenty of older nobles would have way more to bring to the table. The scion only had this occasion because Indoramus was just getting started, and he was the first person of actual importance to show even an ounce of interest.
Since increasing his standing in such a short period of time was highly unlikely, he would need to figure out another way to bind himself to Indoramus... And the man just so happened to have an Allina.
If he could seduce her… However, there was just one small issue with this: She apparently never left home due to an illness that prevented her from interacting with anyone, meaning that Edrick would have to get himself invited to Indoramus’s home, which wouldn’t be too hard, but most of all, he would need to somehow find and then swiftly seduce her without alerting anyone.
‘Mmh…’
Anoteros spent a full carriage ride thinking about this, but once he reached his destination, it was time for him to focus. He had not yet finished his visits to the vassal sects of his clan. It had been put on pause for quite a while due to him paying close attention to the script of his new personal maid.
He was by himself for this visit, though.
Fenglin was currently learning the ropes from Xiaolie, and Fingmi would probably not have had the stomach to accompany him to this particular sect…
Cult Of Asmodeus.
Amongst the vassal sects, this was the one with the worst reputation amongst the common people–The one with the actual worst practices was Xiaode Mountain Sect, but it hid its true nature well enough that even amongst the great clans, most weren’t aware.
In any case, Cult Of Asmodeus does not hide what it does, and is thus feared by the people. If it wasn’t so effective at creating powerful and competent cultivators, the crown would have probably ordered the sect to be destroyed, but Cult Of Asmodeus was simply too good to suffer such a fate.
…It is a cult that worships a devil.
An entity that would have been called a demon in Edrick’s former world. He himself knew a fair amount of the names of the devils in his old world. Whether they had been true or not didn’t matter. What mattered was that, as far as he is aware, Asmodeus is supposed to be a Prince of Hell, and the devil representing the deadly sin of lust.
In his former world, there were variants, but judging by what this sect was known for, it seemed like Asmodeus was strongly associated with lust here as well.
“Young Master Anoteros. It is a pleasure to see you well. Do you wish to receive a tour, or would you like to meet the sect leader immediately?”
The scion was greeted by a skimpily clad, beautiful woman. She only wore a small piece of well-crafted and well-decorated loincloth, and a small piece of fabric of the same quality covering her breasts.
Apart from this, her body was bare, covered in pink markings.
“I wouldn’t mind a tour. May I know who I am addressing?”
The woman bowed slightly to present herself.
“I am Hiliap, Young Master. I am an elder of the sect”
“Nice to meet you, Hiliap”
He exchanged some pleasantries with her, and the tour soon began. The elder appeared quite giddy–As expected, she had hoped that he would pick the tour since the sect had prepared for his arrival by scheduling some ‘shows’ for his arrival.
She cleared her throat as they arrived before a wooden door.
Although the sect was built above ground, it was built like a dungeon, with walls of stone bricks and heavy wooden doors. Their aesthetic was indeed quite removed from that of the great clans.
“As you are certainly aware already, we cultivate using exclusively a type of lustful energy that is granted to us thanks to our connection to Prince Asmodeus. We acquire it constantly by performing rituals and sacrifices to satisfy him”
“I heard as much. Considering how many cultivators you can produce every year, your relationship to Prince Asmodeus must be quite strong”
He made sure to call it a ‘relationship’ instead of a ‘contract’. The latter was the most accurate description, but he had done his homework, and knew that they didn’t like to hear the term.
To them, they shared a special connection with the devil, and reminding them that it was a contract at the root of it all was like insulting their faith.
“Indeed! We do our best to satisfy him regularly, but we run into issues due to the nature of our rituals. Most include a pure sacrifice, and even those that do not require one often end like it due to our methods, but as you know. We can’t just grab random people anywhere, so we have to rely on the farm, and we thus cannot do as many rituals as we would like…”
“Do not worry, I am sure there are ways to speed things up”
Edrick didn’t make any direct promises since the information was normally still supposed to be secret–But with the risk of upcoming wars, Cult Of Asmodeus would certainly have an influx of ‘material’ ready to be sacrificed.
She pushed open the wooden door.
“Please, take a seat, Young Master. A ritual is just about to take place”