Rubbing his face, Sage laughed and gave Wan Ling a hug, “Sorry for being gone so long… some unexpected things came up. Thankfully, I survived.”

Wan Ling squeezed him a little too tightly in the hug and once they stepped back Sage gave her a curious look. She noticed and her cheeks reddened. Then she slapped his arm and turned around.

“Obviously I don’t like you that way. You should just realize that if you tell someone you’re leaving for a few months to do dangerous training… then disappear for a decade, they’re going to be worried! We all thought you’d died.”

“I… I’m sorry. I truly didn’t plan for this to happen. I had a problem with my cultivation and with nearly dying. I wasted a lot of time recovering.”

Wan Ling waved her hand, it was quite common in the cultivator world to face danger and people died adventuring all the time. There were also plenty of different injuries that would take many months to heal. Even though he was gone for over ten years, the time wasn’t as big an issue. Their lifespans were measured in the centuries once they became cultivators, the problem was telling people you were going somewhere dangerous and then not returning for many years. The chances were that such a person would have died. As only an Outer Disciple, Sage didn’t have a Soul Lamp lit by the Sect. Those with higher rank would light a Soul Lamp for the Sect and if their souls were ever destroyed the Soul Lamp would be extinguished. Those with even higher ranks would even have tracking spells or revenge marks like the one Sage had encountered when he killed that guy from the Cult of the Woodlord.

Sage brushed off the issue of whether or not there was any romantic interest between the two of them and focused on business. Wan Ling first made him wait as she sent out invitations to their friends before she started in on a summary of the changes while he was gone. The business was pretty successful, but most of the profits were invested into opening more locations. Each individual location only had a fixed number of rich folks, so the business had a sort of soft cap. On the plus side, business in each location seemed to level out to a stable level. With this in mind the focus became on opening locations all over the Kingdom. The more branches they opened, the more they would take in.

Sage was quite pleased to see how many Spirit Stones had been set aside for him. He was even more pleased to see how many contribution points he had. Even though he was only guaranteed 10% of the profits, there was still a pile of thirty thousand spirit stones waiting for him. Wan Ling explained that they were only taking a cut of the profits and most of the locations were recently built. She had set it up so the revenue from a specific location didn’t factor into the profits until it paid for its own development cost. In addition, their prices were aimed towards the average cultivator not the richest. They wanted it at a level where it was too pricey for constant visits, but still low enough they could save up for it.

“Well done, Wan Ling! Time has proven you’re just as good as I thought you were. That’ll show those fellows who didn’t trust you.”

After a bit more banter, the others showed up. Yuan Hu, Geng He, Qiu Hou, and Wan Yuhan. Sage was scolded a few more times and then they went to their favorite restaurant, Delicious Dream. Of course, they could go to their own resort restaurant now, but it was a tradition for them.

“Hey, why don’t we just buy Delicious Dream and have them run all our restaurants?”

Wan Yuhan asked after taking a long gulp from his bowl of Delicious Dream Wine. The others nodded their heads and then they all looked at Wan Ling. She took care of everything business related, the rest of the group only provided their muscle to solve problems. Even Geng He, the most intelligent of the bunch was pretty clueless about business. The Holy Flame Sect had the most professionals around, but they also employed many managers just for this reason.

Wan Ling actually shook her head and sighed, “I tried. They aren’t interested in making money. They didn’t really specify, but my guess is this place exists just to cater to a few old fellows in the Sect. One of them probably owns the place and runs it just to make their favorite wine and drink with their friends here.”

Everyone joined her, commiserating over the loss and drinking a few more bowls full of wine. Sage was careful this time, keeping his drinking under control. He’d had far too much last time and even though his friends were here to help him out, that experience had been far too dangerous.

The next day, after he’d recovered from his hangover, he caught up with all his less close friends and acquaintances in the Sect. The other Tamers, Blacksmiths, Alchemists, and everyone else he’d met during his years acquiring so many profession badges. He wasn’t so close with them as his three roommates, but there was many he considered a friend. After spending a couple weeks catching up with everyone he knew in the Sect he turned his attention back to his own interests.

The defenses on Thunder Mountain Bridge had caused him to do a very thorough questioning of why he did things. Long ago he had worked hard to fulfill a childish dream. After that he moved on to looking for somewhere safe to belong. Then he started searching for resources to become powerful, because only the powerful weren’t taken advantage of in this world. Now that he was back in the sect, he recognized that he was now wealthy enough to never have to leave again. In fact, even in the past he could have lived quite nicely and never left at all. Only with self reflection did he see that it wasn’t just a desire for power… he loved adventuring.

Exploring new places, unraveling mysterious locations, challenging unknown creatures, raiding abandoned storehouses, and even robbing ancient tombs. From when he was young and went into the Mines at the Lang Clan, he had already gained a thirst. A curiosity to explore the unknown and unravel secrets.

I need to get stronger so that I can explore even more amazing places!

He’d been gone a long time and had seen many things, so he didn’t immediately plan any new adventures. The years of adventure and struggles had given him plenty of time to think so there was quite a few things he wanted to research before he left the Sect again. He still had the materials from the Hidden Domain that Peak Master Zhen sent him to. There was also a dozen more ideas for twists on devices from Earth, as well as quite a few insect mutations and magical tools he wanted to try out.

On top of all that, he also had a lot of training to do. After starting over his cultivation from scratch with Life Nebula he sensed a few changes from before. Previously, he’d chosen a Wood natured Qi Cultivation Technique and so he of course focused on a set of Wood techniques from the Timeless Master’s library. On the other hand, while the Seed of Life was a Wood natured Heavenly Treasure, he felt that the Life Nebula technique was quite similar to the universal Qi Cultivation Techniques he saw in the past. The nature of one’s innate Qi would give them better control and affinity with certain elemental techniques, so most people chose the cultivation technique that matched their affinity. On the other hand, a universal Qi Cultivation Technique would allow a cultivator to use any elemental technique they wished, albeit with much lower efficiency and power.

It’s far past time I focused on my research again.