Peak Master Zhen was holding back a laugh. Her current clothing, hairstyle, and makeup made her all look like a stately diplomat. Refined and eminently reasonable. On the other hand, her current laughter completely dispelled that notion. She held back a snicker long enough to speak, “I didn’t hear you, say that again.”

Sage kept his annoyance from showing on his face. She just wanted to tease him, since it was already obvious she wasn’t going to help. Even so, he kept the same solemn and polite look on his face as he repeated himself.

“I would like to know more about the Hidden Domain, Peak Master. Is there any way I can gain access to the Sect’s records and research about the Hidden Domain and its materials?”

She started laughing loudly now, unable to stop herself. Peak Master Zhen even waved towards her disciple, Jin Shih, who was standing at the other side of a large hall from them. After she got Jin Shih’s attention, she turned towards him, pointed at Sage, and then gave Jin Shih a look. The kind of look that could only be described as ‘can you believe this guy?’. Her hand was far from blocking Sage from seeing this exchange, which he knew was quite deliberate. Peak Master Zhen just loved to stir up trouble. After a few minutes of back and forth with Jin Shih, who even had a fan to help him exchange pointed looks with Peak Master Zhen, they finally stopped and the Peak Master smiled politely at Sage.

“Forgive me. I don’t know what it is you’re talking about. If the Sect had any Hidden Domains, everything about them would be secret. Anything we knew would definitely not be shared with an Outer Disciple. It’s a good thing none of us know anything about any secrets of the Sect like that, if we were to casually talk about those sorts of things, of which none of us know anything about, we would probably disappear. There’s a rumor that the people who disappear suffer a life worse than torture, I’m so glad we aren’t one of them.”

Sage quickly nodded, “I feel quite sorry for the people that know secrets. Thankfully, I don’t know a thing at all. Thank you for your assistance, Peak Master Zhen.”

Seems they won’t trust me with anything unless I can obtain a higher rank.

Sage bowed more than a few times to Peak Master Zhen and her disciple as well, before he turned around and left from Peak Master Zhen’s home. On the way out, Jin Shih was staring at him, but he didn’t think anything of it and returned to his own house.

Some time later, Sage was talking to the teenage girl from before. Her name was Wen Wen. She acted as Wan Ling’s assistant and handled many of the miscellaneous tasks when Wan Ling wasn’t around. Wen Wen was a resident of Holy Flame City, meaning she was likely related to a sect member or former sect member. The Prosperity Company was headquartered at Sage’s house, which meant that Wan Ling and Wen Wen spent most of their time there doing work for the company. It didn’t really bother Sage since he could just train in the backyard or read in his room. It was also convenient because he could make use of a few business connections without having to leave his house.

“Wen Wen, do you have time for an update on my personal projects?”

The girl in question pulled her hands away from a Memory Forge and nodded to Sage. Sage’s use of Memory Spheres had made them into the standard way to handle paperwork for the Prosperity Company. Instead of having an office, all the founding members, save Wan Ling, merely kept a sort of office space inside a Memory Sphere. Wen Wen just had to use a Memory Forge to add new files into the Memory Spheres and whenever they stopped by they could just check their ‘office’ or copy it over to another Memory Sphere and take it away with them.

It drastically cut down on the amount of paperwork, but they were quite expensive for the average person. Most of the correspondence with the branch locations was done using normal scrolls or jade slips, but all the relevant information was collected, processed and stored inside Memory Spheres by Wen Wen or Wan Ling. While he started the trend, Sage was using the update as an excuse to get to know Wen Wen a bit better. He could just check his own office memory sphere, but instead he’d been asking Wen Wen on a weekly basis so they could establish a rapport.

“Sure! I could use a little break from the paperwork. Let me see.”

Wen Wen walked over to a bookshelf, with each of the shelves having a single pedestal holding a Memory Sphere. This was where each of their ‘offices’ was stored and she brought out Sage’s office and placed it on a Movie Projector. Given that Sage invented them, they of course had quite a few of them. The office was projected into the air and then the ‘camera’ moved over and looked down at the desk where a scroll rolled open and slowly scrolled to the side to continue displaying more information.

“We’ve collected a dozen new insect and animal species this week from throughout the Holy Flame Province. The neighboring provinces report that they’ve already spread the word to the merchant companies in the area that you’re looking for new, unusual, and abnormally powerful Beasts and Bugs.”

Right at this time, as if on cue, there was a knocking at the gates. A moment later, an attendant ran in. The man bowed to them, he was also a new hire. With them becoming more busy, Wen Wen got more and more important duties so they had to hire more help. His was currently acting as a combination of guard, groundskeeper, and handyman at the moment.

“Cui Shufen and Jin Shih have arrived.”

Sage quickly had the man bring them inside and he greeted them enthusiastically. While he wasn’t exactly on good terms with these two, they were the Personal Disciples of Peak Masters, so it was highly likely they would hold high positions in the Sect in the future. He certainly didn’t want to upset them, even though it seemed that Jin Shih already had a bad opinion of him.

I hope it’s just because he’s mischievous like his teacher.

The two walked in, looking around and noticing it hadn’t changed too much from when they visited the last time with their Masters. Cui Shufen actually smiled widely and spoke up before Sage could do more than greet them, “Wow, so you aren’t always dirty like last time. You don’t look that ugly after all.”

Sage could see some annoyance on Jin Shih’s face, but he didn’t end up mentioning it. Instead Jin Shih flipped open his fan and waved it as he made a sudden offer, “I couldn’t help but hearing a little bit while we were outside. It’s also no secret about the standing purchase orders you’ve left in the Sect. Since you really like collecting beasts, I figured you might be interested. There’s an auction next month at Daggerguard City, and you should know that will be the best place to obtain the unique plants, animals, and items produced in Green Plateau Province. It’s even been said that the Cult of the Woodlord will be auctioning off something very expensive and special this time around.”