Strong Ally
Get lucky at the casino then find the Butcher (L58).
He is in the northern city you get relations with him with blue rarity or higher food.
You get his knife from the Casino Owner in the same city (Cuz there are two) I recommend trading for it over buying it cuz it is either 10,000 coins or a couple boar tusks then you can either have weapon crafting at level 4 or pay a blacksmith 5,000 coins to identify it give it to him he joins you.
Then if you got enough good *** you can trade back for his family knife and it gives his Ox Killer Blade a nice boost.
Note: Another good Ally is Zhang Lata over in the Taoist Sect. You need to spar with him to recruit but he only uses 10% of his power at 100 Relation. Pretty easy to beat and he starts out at level 78
the old monster can hit real hard but kinda squishy in the chianxiang(?). the butcher is pretty decent. Small sect leader post sect story like CIB or Swallows nest are pretty decent too.(can’t recruit major sect without the trait or the token tho). The toxin lady is kinda decent but you have to defeat her so yeah… honestly, do some leveling first.