Overview
The Jianghu underworld in The Bustling World contains multiple secret organizations that operate outside official government control. These underground factions run everything from gambling operations to martial arts schools, and players can interact with them in a variety of ways.
Faction types
Underground organizations fall into several categories, each offering different services and opportunities.
Type | Description |
|---|---|
Underground gambling dens | Illegal gambling operations where players can risk their money |
Secret banks | Financial operations running outside official channels |
Outlaw strongholds | Bandit hideouts and criminal bases of operations |
Secluded martial arts schools | Hidden training grounds that teach unique fighting techniques |
Named factions
Three named underground factions have been confirmed, each drawing from classic wuxia fiction traditions.
Beggar Gang (丐帮): One of the most recognizable organizations in Chinese martial arts fiction. The Beggar Gang is a network of beggars who share intelligence and operate across cities.
Sunflower Sect: A faction with its own martial arts techniques and organizational hierarchy.
Red Clothes Sect: Another faction operating within the Jianghu underworld.
Faction Services
Each underground faction offers different services depending on its specialty.
Sell stolen goods: Some factions act as fences for items obtained through theft or robbery
Teach martial arts: Secluded schools teach unique fighting techniques unavailable anywhere else
Provide information: Certain factions have intelligence networks that can reveal secrets unknown to anyone else
Player Interaction Options
Players have considerable freedom in how they engage with underground factions. The available options include the following.
Trade with the faction for goods and services
Obtain unique martial arts techniques only available from that group
Uncover hidden secrets through the faction's information network
Manipulate the faction for personal advantage
Join the faction and become a member
Eliminate the faction entirely through force
Rebuild a destroyed faction under new leadership
These options connect underground factions to the game's other systems. A player pursuing the dark side path might rely on factions to fence stolen goods and hide from the wanted system. A martial artist might seek out secluded schools to learn rare techniques. A faction leader might work to eliminate rival underground groups to consolidate control over a region.
Categories of Underground Power
The Bustling World ships with a layer of organized criminal and semi-legal power that exists alongside official government and established martial arts schools. These groups occupy the social space the developers call the dark side of jianghu. Confirmed categories include:
Gambling dens. Run high-stakes games where fortunes change hands overnight. Often serve as fronts for loan-sharking and protection rackets.
Secret banks. Underground financial services for clients who cannot or will not use official banks. Move money across regions, hide wealth from authorities.
Outlaw strongholds. Fortified bases of bandits, deserters, and wanted criminals in remote terrain. Function as safe havens for those on the run.
How Players Engage
Players can interact with underground factions in several roles:
Client. Pay for services (loans, smuggling, safe houses, contracts).
Member. Join the network and rise through its ranks, eventually running operations.
Owner. Establish a player-run underground business, recruit NPC operators, defend territory.
Adversary. Hunt down faction members through bounty hunting or destroy a stronghold through faction warfare. See military and warfare.
Diplomat. Negotiate alliances or non-aggression deals between an underground faction and a legitimate power, blurring the line between official and unofficial authority.
Risks and Costs
Underground work pays well and unlocks options that legitimate paths cannot reach, but it draws the attention of the crime and wanted system. Reputation with official factions falls as criminal involvement rises, and once a player is publicly known as a member of an outlaw group, traveling through official cities becomes harder. The autonomy system means rival underground factions also notice and react: betraying a smuggling boss can mean assassins appear in the next town.
Notes
Specific named underground factions and their leaders have not been published in detail by primary sources. Named groups attributed to The Bustling World by third-party aggregator pages have not been confirmed by the developer and are not listed here until verified in-build.