The ants slowly returned to the Beetle, and Chong Xiezi started an awkward conversation with Sage. He could only scratch out characters in the dirt, talking through text. Sage had only smuggled in a single storage ring and besides the resources he’d collected in Thunder Mountain Bridge he’d only packed a few Spirit Stones as emergency food for the Ants or Beetle.

Maybe I should build a method to communicate through insects.

After a few minutes they pieced together some basic information. Sage told her he was a last remnant of the Lang Clan, and that he’d snuck the bugs in. He didn’t tell her that Song Lu Tian was working with him, but she seemed to accept his story. He also learned there was no specific event or enmity between her and Fu Zedong. Their clans were eternal enemies, as long as they didn’t sully their reputation by committing murders in public the two clans would always try to kill each other off.

“Well, Lang Sheng. Come along with me, it’s your duty after all.”

He’d already collected a decent amount of materials and satisfied the bulk of his curiosity towards Thunder Mountain Bridge. With that in mind, he chose to accept Chong Xiezi’s arrogance and act as reinforcements for her. It wasn’t like he couldn’t turn on her later if there was a really good reason. After she recovered from her injuries he stood guard as she raised a new winged scorpion, one which Sage was sure was her own specially tailored breed. While they waited he even started chatting with her about trading insects. While she didn’t want to give up her own best winged scorpion he also didn’t want to hand over any Warp Worms or his modified ants. He hadn’t really renamed the ants yet, wanting to perfect their behavioral training before he changed their bodies.

When she was ready they left once more, Sage getting a little praise when he showed off the scouting ability of the ant colony. After leading Chong Xiezi to a dozen lower level special materials, she got bored. They were finding plenty of resources, but they were too low a level. She took charge and led them in flight towards different areas. They ran into a few of the other competitors, but when they saw the might of the winged scorpion when combined with a huge horde of ants they retreated.

Eventually, the time ran out and the competitors made their way to the ring at the start of Thunder Mountain Bridge. They weren’t sure what to do next as the Trial Master hadn’t informed them. When they were just about to get worried the ring suddenly lit up with energy and they quickly stepped inside. This time they remembered the Trial Master’s instructions and they were able to land without getting injuries or smashing their faces into the ground. It was still a pretty undignified method of travel, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

The Trial Master was standing there waiting for them. He looked over each of them before nodding his head and taking them back into the Constellation Shell Mirror. After waiting for some time within a featureless white room, they suddenly felt themselves moved and were once again standing in Plum Lantern City in front of a huge crowd of people. While the crowd wasn’t nearly as large as before, it was still immense. Many of the foreign cultivator’s had left when they didn’t qualify or lost in the tournament, but a large portion of them, as well as all the locals, had stayed to congratulate the winners. The locals were actually just eager to memorize the appearance of all these young heroes, while most of the cultivators were actually just wanting to try and get some clues as to what Thunder Mountain Bridge was like and also to try and determine if they got any really good treasures.

The Trial Master wouldn’t let anyone harm the young geniuses while he was around, unless they broke his rules that is, but once they left his presence then others might try to hunt their treasures. Nearly every one of these geniuses came from a great power so small time bandits or lone fighters had little chance to rob them, but if their gains were valuable enough then the other big clans might put forth the effort to chase them. It was a very tense time for the ten geniuses and their groups.

Surprisingly, all ten had survived Thunder Mountain Bridge. On the other hand, they didn’t look all that great. Fu Zedong was missing an arm and covered in gruesome wounds. Kong Min, the girl with a huge saber, also looked battered and was bundled up like a mummy with bandages. Hong Chiang, the Valorous Red Spear, had his arm in a sling and his spear had been broken into three pieces which were shoved into his belt. Jia Ling, the pyromaniac with a cold personality, was covered in soot and her clothing was torn up. One of the ‘lucky two’, the weakest of the geniuses, was missing an eye. He’d been following around Qin Bao, and from the looks of things their whole group was quite a bit battered.

Song Lu Tian, Xuan Mei, and Chong Xiezi on the other hand all looked like they’d just been on a picnic. Their clothing was in perfect condition as were their bodies. Chong Xiezi had completely recovered from her battle with Fu Zedong and with Sage’s help she’d avoided any other conflicts through the rest of the trip. Xuan Mei, the Returning Beauty, was just as mysterious as ever. The geniuses had gossiped about her while waiting for the ring to open and not a one of them had seen her in the whole two weeks yet here she was completely untouched. They couldn’t even tell whether Xuan Mei or Song Lu Tian was more powerful, no one had ever really seen how she won her battles. Not even the people that were defeated knew what happened.

After a large amount of cheering the crowd tried to get the geniuses to talk about their journey, but they all declined. Instead they each accepted invitations to different celebration parties. Paying attention to the attendants of each of these parties would be a good way to learn about the various factions and alliances that existed among the many clans and powers in the Dou Kingdom. Three major celebrations were planned. One of them was thrown by Plum Lantern City and all of the geniuses were invited. The Zhu Clan was providing the entertainment so all the important personages would show up. This party was only planned for a few hours. Afterwards, two major groups were throwing parties of their own. One group was a coalition of clans from the West part of Dou Kingdom, while the other was a group from the East. They obviously didn’t have the support of every province, city or clan. Instead it was just a large group of some of the bigger powers. Neither group was aiming to overthrow the Dou Kingdom, they were simply pooling power together to bully weaker groups.

The Qin Clan, that Qin Bao was from, hosted the party for the Eastern Coalition and was attended by everyone who had worked with him in Thunder Mountain Bridge. The West was hosted by the Fu Clan. The Fu and Chong Clans were actually from the center of the Dou Kingdom and based in the capital, but all the most powerful clans had many branch clans and subordinate companies. It seemed that the Fu Clan’s power was based in the West.

Xuan Mei was picked up by a pair of women with face veils and the three of them swiftly disappeared. Song Lu Tian, and the Mount Song Sword Sect, were not affiliated with either Coalition. As such, they merely made an appearance at both parties. Chong Xiezi and the Chong Clan also went to both parties. They went to the western party simply to insult the Fu Clan and then went to the eastern party to goad them into provoking the western coalition that the Fu Clan was a leader of.