If someone were to ask me what the most important element in building a faction is, I would answer without hesitation: âPower.â
In the face of overwhelming force, nothing else matters.
No matter the countermeasures.
No matter how one tries to resist.
If you have the strength to crush and tear everything apart, all prior efforts and plans are rendered meaningless. They become mere futile struggles.
I had learned this truth bitterly in the past.
Which is why I can speak of it with such certainty.
Howeverâ¦
Such overwhelming powerâenough to destroy everythingâis impossible to attain under normal circumstances.
For this reason, most people consider something else to be even more important than strength when building a faction.
Some call it the flow of the world.
Others say it is stronger than any sword.
Despite having no physical form, it carries a value worth countless fortunes.
Yes.
That would be:
âInformation.â
Information is invaluable.
It cannot be ignored by any faction, no matter how powerful.
Even the greatest warriors would never willingly part with it.
In fact, among the Four Great Families, the Peng Clan was said to have spent twice the amount of money theyâd use to recruit a Hwagyeong-level martial artist on building an intelligence division under a single strategist.
This demonstrated just how much they valued information.
Not just the Peng Clanâmost renowned sects and families operated their own intelligence networks.
In many ways, it was like an invisible battlefield.
And this was only natural.
If you cannot gain dominance through brute force, you must expand your territory through superior information. Even a passing child could understand this basic principle.
The difference between knowing and not knowing is as vast as the sky and the earth.
And sitting in front of me now was the very person who could be called the foremost authority on information.
âHoho.â
The old man chuckled as he sipped tea.